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KPBS’ ‘Full Focus’ host Gloria Penner addresses the audience at Tuesday’s voter forum held at The Center
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Voter forum covers this year’s election basics
KPBS’ Gloria Penner throws political theory, candidate history into the mix
Published Thursday, 21-Oct-2004 in issue 878
KPBS’ “Full Focus” host Gloria Penner outlined the major races and clarified initiatives that will be on the ballot Nov. 2 to an audience of approximately 40 people at a voter forum held at The Center on Tuesday, Oct. 12. Penner, who also hosts KPBS’ weekly radio program “Editor’s Roundtable”, briefly touched on the finer points of the mayoral, city attorney and District 4 races locally, as well as the 76th and 78th State Assembly races, Barbara Boxer’s seat in the U.S. Senate and the presidential election.
“Give me a good political season and I really groove on it,” Penner said. “It’s the best part of the year for me. … This year is an unbelievable year. I have not seen people this energized about elections in a very long time.”
Penner paraphrased a comment made by San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Philip J. LaVelle in the Oct. 3 edition comparing the mayoral race to “flat soda” until Donna Frye entered and added “some fizz into this can.” Though Murphy supporters have said that Frye is pulling votes away from Roberts and Roberts supporters have said Frye is pulling votes away from Murphy, Penner said a poll conducted several weeks ago indicated that Frye is taking votes primarily away from Roberts.
Leslie Devaney and Mike Aguirre’s heated battle for city attorney – with Devaney, coming from the office of current City Attorney Casey Gwinn, swearing she was not involved in Gwinn’s missteps during his tenure and Aguirre vowing to overhaul the Office of City Attorney from the inside out – leading many San Diegans to speculate on how the new mayor and new city attorney will maneuver the city’s financial crisis and pension fund deficit.
“The question is, with Mike Aguirre and Donna Frye, both renegades, what kind of City of San Diego would we have?” Penner said.
Assemblymember Christine Kehoe, a Democrat, and her main opponent in the State Senate race for the 39th District seat Dede Alpert is vacating, Republican Larry Stirling, share similar trajectories in their political careers, Penner said. Both started out working on political campaigns, served on the San Diego City Council and then in the State Assembly, and are now vying for the 39th State Senate District, which represents two-thirds of the City of San Diego. Stirling, however, has served as a state senator once before. During that time, Penner noted, Stirling helped negotiate a “pretty good” retirement package for Superior Court judges through the State Assembly, then retired from the Legislature and accepted an appointment as a Superior Court judge.
“He’s as diametrically opposite to her [Kehoe] politically as you can get,” Penner said. “He is truly a former legislator who believes in small government, cutting social programs and balancing the budget based on that. He does believe in a balanced budget.”
Though she’ll get a tough fight from Stirling, Penner said Kehoe has the advantage that the 39th District has more registered Democrats than Republicans.
The 76th Assembly District race is another race to watch this year, Penner said, with Democrat Lori Saldaña, an environmentalist and a teacher, and Republican Tricia Hunter, a nurse who has held political office before, running head to head. “She [Hunter] does have experience going for her,” Penner noted. “But Lori has something else. She has a great, grassroots organization. She won the race for the Democratic Primary with literally no money. … Right now, she looks pretty good in the 76th. There’s a lot of money coming in behind her.”
But Penner said one of the most fascinating races is for the 78th Assembly District between incumbent Republican Shirley Horton and her Democratic rival, Chula Vista City Councilmember Patty Davis. Davis and Horton worked together when Horton served as mayor of Chula Vista. “Shirley is part Japanese,” Penner noted as she profiled the two women, “…she takes full advantage of the fact that there’s some Japanese blood in there and positions herself as someone who is interracial.”
Horton won the predominantly Democratic district two years ago when she ran against Democrat Vince Hall, though some of her campaign’s tactics have been called into question. “She had signs out that said: ‘Democrats for Horton’. People got confused,” Penner said. “There were phone calls saying that Bob Filner supported Shirley Horton. Bob Filner did not support Shirley Horton, and threatened to sue the campaign. This time around, 16 public safety organizations endorsed Shirley Horton – 16 of them – but they didn’t. So that campaign, the way it’s run, is questionable. Really questionable.”
The San Diego Democratic Club has made Davis a priority candidate, as well as Saldaña and Kehoe.
The motivating parties behind ballot propositions concerning the repeal of the Gregory Canyon landfill and recycling center (Prop. B), and the sale of a portion of Mt. Soledad Natural Park (Prop. K), were discussed, as were state initiatives having to do with non-tribal commercial gambling expansion (68), mental health services expansion (63), stem cell research funding bonds (71) and a telephone surcharge for emergency medical services (67).
The overwhelming amount of initiatives and propositions on the ballot this year had one audience member wondering if the process hadn’t gotten out of hand. Though started in 1916 as a way for people who lack governmental access or corporate funding to object to legislation, Penner said the initiative process has since been manipulated by big-business factions the law originally sought to challenge, who often pay petitioners $2 a signature in order to meet the requirements to put self-serving legislation on the ballot.
“I mean, would we have had the recall [of Gov. Gray Davis] without [San Diego County Republican Rep.] Darrell Issa’s money?” Penner asked. “No way. … I think it’s gotten way out of hand.”
Additionally, she pointed out a recent Union-Tribune candidate profile pullout in which the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Barbara Boxer and Republican challenger Bill Jones was the only profile where religious affiliation was mentioned. Boxer is Jewish; Jones is Protestant.
“Full Focus” hosts a mayoral debate with all three candidates on Thursday, Oct. 21.
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