A Driving Lesson for the Mayoral Election from Dr. Jen Campbell

Don’t be fooled by Kevin Faulconer ads! He is a REPUBLICAN and his record shows he votes on the side of the REPUBLICANS all the time. He was hand picked to run for mayor by Doug Manchester. Yes, that guy who gave at least $100,000 to defeat gay marriage in California. That guy who bought the Union Tribune and 8 other local newspapers as well as controlling much of the television news coverage in San Diego, and that guy who funds the Lincoln Club. We won’t mention his personal code of ethics.

The strategy is to win by lying. The Republicans know how to do it. So far they have fooled the public and been successful. The strategy was to divide and conquer the Democrats in the primary for mayor. Their plan was to run against Alvarez as they had data indicating they would have a much harder time beating Fletcher. They pumped a half million dollars into the Alvarez campaign, said good things about him in their mailers to Dems and Independents, while vilifying Fletcher and showing pictures of Fletcher with leading Republicans. They could mail out the same pictures of Faulconer with big time Republicans, but they don’t.

This worked and along with other factors, Fletcher was defeated in the primary. Then they planned the final battle. They have been painting Faulconer as a reasonable, moderate bi-partisan family guy. They have taken any reference to the Republican Party, Doug Manchester, and their backward view of social issues out of the campaign, touting that Faulconer is pro-choice, pro gay, and pro people of color. You will find no reference on the internet to Faulconer being a Republican, much less a social dinosaur. Meanwhile, with subtlety, they are reminding people that Alvarez is Latino, thus dark skinned, and not a person who is like them enough to lead the city.

The Republican Party is using brilliant strategy to try to fool you. This city has a Democratic voter registration edge now but will the Democrats vote in an off-time special election? Turnout for these elections is low all together and especially low for Democrats. Having first helped to divide the Democrats, now they are trying to get them to either stay home or vote for Faulconer, not telling you that the very rich Republican and big business interests in this city have pumped millions into his campaign and will control him.

Some people think it doesn’t matter who is mayor but it does. We now have a “strong mayor” system of government in this city and the mayor has a lot of power. So, if you want to see San Diego turned into a fiefdom for the wealthy, get overbuilt and lose what little of our clean environment is left, vote Republican. Vote against your own self-interests.

Or, if you are a person who has suffered prejudice because of: your skin color, your religion, your heritage, your economic background, being a woman or being gay, vote for the person from the party that has stood up for you and obtained equal rights under the law over the past 100 years in America, vote DEMOCRATIC, VOTE ALVAREZ.

Or, If you are a person who loves the environment, who understands global climate change is going on, who believes in finding truth through science, technology, who believes the backbone of our democracy is excellent and free public education, who believes the 99% deserve the same rules as the 1%, who believes police and fire should be paid as the professionals they are, who knows the economy only works when it is honest -VOTE DEMOCRATIC, VOTE ALVAREZ.

Remember everything you needed to know to vote you learned while learning to drive. If you want to go backward, you put it in “R”. If you want to go forward, you put it in “D”.

Jennifer Campbell, M.D.President, Clairemont Democratic Club