San Diego CityBeat’s Endorsement of Scott Peters: (Here is the link to the editorial)
Once upon a time, we liked Carl DeMaio. That seems like a very, very long time ago. It might have even been in some kind of alternate universe. We currently regard him as the most objectionable politician who’s tried to make a name in San Diego during CityBeat’s 12-plus years here. He’s worse than county Supervisor Bill Horn.We can’t stand DeMaio because all he cares about is Carl DeMaio. Sure, most politicians are self-centered, but DeMaio takes self-love and self-promotion to stratospheric heights. DeMaio’s utterly detestable. Many of the people who’ve been aboard his bandwagon at various times will have nothing to do with him. Former City Councilmember Donna Frye famously called DeMaio a “sociopath.” Former Mayor Jerry Sanders seemed always on the verge of strangling him. This is why DeMaio’s talk of fixing the dysfunction in Congress is absurd. He is dysfunction in human form.His political career has been built on bashing unions and starving the government of revenue. He doesn’t care about providing services. He’s a one-trick pony, and even that one trick seems to be performed in the service of promoting himself. He was more than happy to take taxpayer money when it was enriching him, through his public-sector-efficiency consulting business. As a councilmember, he had no problem outspending his colleagues to promote himself, using taxpayer money on fake plants and Teleprompters for speeches (he later lied by saying he never used Teleprompters), printing services, booths at community events and a smart-phone app.
His claim to fame is city pension reform, but even that is overblown. He didn’t blow the whistle on the problem, and while he did carry on about it incessantly, reform would have happened—and did happen, to a large extent—without him. The useful parts of 2012’s Prop. B, the big pension-reform initiative he helped craft, could have been accomplished without an acrimonious ballot measure. But he needed it to help promote his run for mayor—that was the point.
After he lost the mayor’s race to Bob Filner, and after Filner resigned, the city’s conservative power structure chose Kevin Faulconer over DeMaio (what does that tell you?), so DeMaio ran for Congress as a consolation prize. It’s not what he wanted. He wanted to be mayor: more power.
In order to appeal to the swing voters in District 52, DeMaio is trying to be something he’s never been: a moderate who cares about issues he’s never cared about. But he also has to walk a thin line: appealing to moderate voters while not upsetting the conservative national Republicans. Case in point: his views on climate change. He acknowledges that it’s happening but isn’t so sure the problem is manmade. Ha! The overwhelming scientific consensus says that it is manmade.
We could go on and on. But we should probably say a few words about the guy we’re endorsing—after all, we elevated him to savior status on our cover.
Scott Peters, the incumbent, will never be the politician that progressives dream about, but he’ll make us happy precisely 68.72 percent of the time. OK, fine, there’s nothing remotely scientific about that number, but you get the point. Peters is perfect for this district and its voters. Unlike DeMaio, who’s had to contort himself to fit as a moderate, Peters has always been this guy, having served for eight years in a similar City Council district. He’s essentially pro-business, pro-military, pro-environment and socially liberal.
Also unlike DeMaio, Peters has the ideal temperment for the House of Represenatives, otherwise known as Wackadoodle Town. He doesn’t just say he’ll work well with others—he’s always done it. He is decidedly sane. And he’s the only thing that will rescue the nation from the horror show that San Diego knows all too well. Save us, Scott Peters; you’re our only hope! If you’re in the 52nd, for the love of all that’s holy, please vote for Scott Peters.