We’re into week two of the outrage centered on allegations of sexual harassment by San Diego’s Mayor and so far the score is Bob Filner 1, Accusers 0, Power Brokers 0.
Despite the calls for resignation, the certainty in the media that these charges bode ill for the city and the rumble of a recall election, Mayor Bob Filner remains firmly ensconced at City Hall.
Those hoping to shame hizzoner with sordid details and finger wagging have failed to comprehend his obstinacy.
It’s as if downtown is surreal rerun of the old TV game show Family Feud, with right wing rag UT-San Diego's hit man Trent Seibert filling in for Richard Dawson. “Survey Says”, he proclaims loudly, “Resign!” The lights and bells go off, the contestants jump up and down… and nothing happens.
Should We Hang Him First and Then Have a Trial?
The arguments about the Mayor’s continued tenure are passionate. The mere mention of the name “Filner” in the Twitter-verse sparks accusations, anger and angst.
Consider the prepared statement from Run Women Run, a San Diego political action committee with about 300 members.
“Any indication of intimidation or inappropriate behavior toward women in the workplace impedes the progress of all women and cannot be tolerated.”
Speaking at a downtown press conference, activist Enrique Morones provided the counterpoint:
“We will not endorse a public execution. Bob Filner, you deserve due process — you have earned it more than most.”
Then there’s Erik Bruvold, president of the National University System Institute for Policy Research, warning of impending doom in a
UT-SDarticle yesterday:
“We could be in this for a half a year or year, and such a long time of uncertainty and turmoil is problematic and could really impact the city’s economy,” he said.
That could include cancellations of conventions and lead to businesses reluctant to locate here because of perceived upheaval at City Hall, Bruvold said.
And Congressman Scott Peters, fighting back against claims by his coming opponent (and failed Mayoral candidate) Carl DeMaio that he was slow to call for Filner’s resignation, via
NPR:
"If he's distracted or not credible because of these recent events, that will get in the way and we'll see lost opportunities," says Rep. Scott Peters, who represents San Diego and has called on Filner to resign.
The Faux Power of Revelations
Take a spin through all San Diego’s respectable media over the past week and the conclusion that Filner’s gonna fall seems damned near unanimous. The ‘power of the revelations’ would seem to promise a moral outrage that would sweep him from office.
Only that’s not what’s happening.
I’m reminded of a young and naïve political activist (that would be me, back when typewriters were in vogue) who believed the 1970’s revelations of Watergate and abuses of power by this nation’s law enforcement/national security agencies would herald a new era of transparent and fair minded government.
The thinking was that the public outrage over abuses of power would force the system to reform itself. Looking back over the past 40 years, it’s pretty obvious the Congressional hearings, criminal court cases and newspaper editorials all added up to little more than window dressing.
I think this is a better historical analogy than talking about the consensual sex scandals of Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer or even diaper-boy Senator David Vitter.
Back to the present… Press conferences and anonymous allegations will not force Bob Filner from office. Even formal charges and lawsuits won’t work. The man is as stubborn as a jackass climbing a steep mountain trail. All the lawyers and former friends in the world won’t change that. Push and he’ll push back harder.
And he’s got the law on his side.
The Recall Scenario
As outraged as assorted Democrats claim to be about the Mayor’s alleged behavior, they’ve been unable to achieve a political consensus about actually doing anything to remove him from office.
The County’s Democratic Central Committee and the San Diego Imperial Labor Council aren’t going to be mobilizing their troops for any recall campaign. A three hour meeting in Kearny Mesa last night ended with a tie vote on whether or not the Mayor should resign. There will be no Union Thugs, as the Daily Fishwrap likes to call them, gathering signatures for a recall. And some local wags are saying the tie vote, which came despite Filner’s refusal to attend the meeting, signals that the tide is turning in his favor.
Many local Republican activists seem to prefer that Filner remains in office, the thinking being that death by a thousand cuts (i.e., continuing to scandal monger) will do more damage to the Democratic brand in the long run.
They also may have the problem of not having an electable candidate should the Mayor be ousted. A SurveyUSA/10News pollshows only Jan Goldsmith among Republicans with a strong net favorable rating among voters. Democrats Nathan Fletcher, Christine Kehoe and Donna Frye all sit at the top of approval (like minus dislike) ratings.
Carl Demaio (-3) and Bob Filner (-24) hold the bottom spots in this survey.
This leaves the recall in the hands of activist Michael Pallamary, who led a successful recall drive against City Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt more than two decades ago. That effort was triggered by voter anger at ham handed redistricting efforts (some say orchestrated by Bob Filner) and limited to voters in a single City Council district.
So at present the business of recall is outside the realm of local political parties and in the hands of outraged citizens from both sides of the aisle.
This leads me to wonder if we’ll get to see Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez and Carl DeMaio side-by-side in a shopping center somewhere collecting signatures.
The Recall Quagmire
The mechanics of a recall are difficult at best and will require substantial financial resources, monies that have yet to materialize.
This Voice of San Diego article does an excellent job of describing the difficulties in pulling off a recall. Collecting nearly 102,000 verifiable signatures of registered voters in the City of San Diego in 39 days is just the start.
Then there’s the whole question of whether or not San Diego’s legal framework for a recall election could stand a constitutional challenge.VOSD’s Zachary Warma explored this issue back in May, when the idea of a recall was a mere glimmer in Doug Manchester’s eye, and strongly suggested the answer was no.
The Legal Case and “Due Process”
Supporters of the Mayor want him to be able to face his accusers. And he certainly has that right should any civil or criminal charges be filed. That’s a legal issue and nobody has suggested Bob Filner wouldn’t get a day in court if that’s what he wants.
Even if criminal charges are filed, there exists no mechanism in the San Diego Charter to remove the Mayor from office. A misdemeanor conviction (which Filner already has, stemming from his 2007 airport altercation) does not rise to the standard needed to disqualify him, from serving. So prosecutors would have to hope for a felony conviction in a sexual battery case (based upon what we’ve heard so far).
What we have going on in San Diego is a course of action that is NOT legal (yet). It’s political. And there is no Constitutional requirement for due process in a ‘trial by press conference situation’.
I think Filner’s done serious wrong. But I’m not equating that thought with believing his resignation will equal justice for the women who have been violated. Right now what we have is just another chapter in the long history of mob rule in San Diego.
I know that saying he shouldn’t resign will get me called misogynist and worse. The fact of life is the Mayor’s staying put. Calling me names won’t change that.
The National “Embarrassment”
Bob Filner’s troubles may have made national headlines over the past week, but equally troubling is the difficulty the news media has in getting the simple facts straight. Alex Corey and Lisa Halverstadt have already covered some of the bases, so I’ll focus on Rachel Maddow’s mischaracterizations on her MSNBC show.
I guess I can forgive her lack of nuance about San Diego’s political history, i.e., the city didn’t turn Democratic overnight. But the choice of the UT-San Diego’s pitbull as a reporter to tell the Filner story was Just. Not. Right.
I’ll let commenter (DotLee) say it for me. I sent Maddow the links about this clown and I know others complained. So far, no response.
I am angry, as well as "dazed and confused", by Rachel's lack of research and homework on Trent Seibert and his past connections. Or maybe you didn't do the research, Steve Benen and Bill Wolff. Why would you and Rachel provide a voice for an individual introduced as an "investigative reporter" without understanding that he was funded by the Koch brothers during his Texas Watchdog days. He is now the “watchdog” attack guy for Doug Manchester, developer owner of the local right-wing UT newspaper in San Diego.
Doug Manchester (aka Papa Doc) was a huge money backer for Prop. 8 and his recent hire Trent Seibert is a teabagger, plain and simple. Seibert also loves Dumb and Dumber SNL skits produced for his local UT TV station Why on earth would you want this character on your show, Rachel?
Google Seibert (or Siebert misspelled) to find out what he was up to in Colorado, Tennessee, and Texas before he turned up in San Diego a few months ago. Google Manchester and Lynch if you don’t mind feeling dirty.
The ‘Sky is Falling’ Scenario
Confronted with seemingly implausible public disinterest, the argument is being made about how the instability and chaos at city hall will damage San Diego.
That’s the narrative being pitched by Alan Greenblatt at NPR. He quotes Mark Cafferty, president of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Authority:
"It will not keep us from being able to do our work, but it's a huge distraction and one that gives San Diego the image again of being a place mired in problems, after a series of years where we dug ourselves out of that."
I love how San Diego’s economy somehow gets detached from the nation and the rest of the world when the downtown types are pitching their schemes. Outside of politically active circles, people aren’t chomping at the bit to dethrone Filner, even when they think he’s wrong. In some neighborhoods they are, gasp, defending him.
So that’s why it’s time to drag out the fear card. Get rid of Filner or your family will suffer is the motif. You’ll lose your job… your children will have no future (at those minimum wage jobs we love to create).
Remember the doom and gloom forecast for this summer back in the days of the Tourism Market District crisis? The city was facing at best a recession unless the mayor let hotels have their way.
As it turns out the big corporations that own hotels in San Diego have lost interest in funding tourism advertising now that they’re on the hook for any losses to the tax payers incurred various the lawsuits challenging the legality of their “No, it’s not a tax” collection scheme. From the UT-San Diego:
Currently, just 23 waiver pacts have been turned in out of more than 220 requested. Those that have been signed account for only 12 percent of the expected $28.5 million in revenues that were forecast for the 2013-14 fiscal year.
Noticeably absent from the coverage is any mention whether UT-San Diego publisher Doug Manchester has signed off for his flagship resort, the five star Grand Del Mar for any taxpayer protection waivers. I’ll bet he didn’t, since he hasn’t bothered to comply with rules concerning
six years of construction permits.
Just think about how many jobs in San Diego could be created if he would only sign a piece of paper guaranteeing no loss to the taxpayer.
Manchester’s actions and attitude should be cast as Exhibit A in any investigation as to whether these downtown types really give a rats’ ass about ordinary people in San Diego. Phht.
You want to improve San Diego’s economy? Tell Darrell Issa and his teabagging friends to end the logjam in congress.
Meanwhile, Filner's stacked his team with people that know how to make things work in government.
Why Would Somebody Actually Support Filner?
Virtually nobody is publicly defending the behaviors Mayor Filner is accused of. To my knowledge there is no “We like to grope and we’re proud” lobby. Although it is kind of weird seeing just how ardent GOP top dog Tony Krvarik has been on Twitter in defending women. One could only wish that passion would extend to the Republican positions on a variety of other issues concerning that gender.
Still, it made me feel kind of unclean, appearing to dismiss Bob Filner’s aberrant conduct. How could I NOT want him gone?
Then I had an epiphany yesterday at the “Due Process for Filner” press conference.
As I looked over the crowd I was struck by the number of people I recognized who’d been involved in grass roots community organizing and civil rights struggles in some of San Diego’s poorest neighborhoods. Some of them I remembered from four decades back. They hailed from Black, Brown, Filipino constituencies.
These were people who’ve spent their whole life fighting for racial and economic justice. These were the people who have traditionally been given crumbs from the table of plenty dished up to the downtown development (often) funded via the public treasury.
Bob Filner may be all those things that his accusers say he his. But these folks don’t see anybody else on the horizon that will give them a fighting chance at a fair shake for their communities.
They don’t have to be told about the kingmaker meetings at Congressman Juan Varga’s house. Or the behind-the-scenesbig money effort to draft Qualcomm executive/ Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat Nathan Fletcher. They know it’s likely none of the schemes include their interests.
That’s why they’re supporting Bob Filner. Successfully make the argument that his policies will continue without him and the game could change. And that ain’t gonna happen.
This article was originally published at San Diego Free Press