San Diego UT: GOP Crushes Dems in Campaign Spending

The success of the Republican Party in San Diego has again made headlines this week as the latest camapign reports have Democrats wondering about their disastrous performance in the county's June elections. (For more on this, read the Calitics story, What the Hell Happened in San Diego?)

The City of San Diego has been a financial disaster area since the labor-controlled city council allowed the employee pension system to spin out of control, leaving a mess for new Mayor Jerry Sanders to clean up over the last few years.

Republican efforts to put sound financial management practices in place depend on success at the ballot box, and extraordinarily strong performance by Republicans in the June election have Democrats scratching their heads.

In financial reports just released, we can see the Republican Party of San Diego County outspent the hapless San Diego Democratic Party by 6-to-1, or $935K compared to $157K for the Democrats. In a city where the Democrats have a signficant advantage in voter registration, the party failed to field a even one credible candidate for San Diego Mayor, spending just $1,869 on Floyd Morrow (whoever that is).

Of particular embarrassment to the City of San Diego has been its elected City Attorney, Democrat Mike Aguirre, whose antics continue to drive the support of reasonable people to Republican challenger Judge Jan Goldsmith. Aguirre may be best known for advocating during last year's fires that the *entire* city of San Diego (population: 1.5 million) be evacuated to Arizona. Aguirre finished an embarassing second to Goldsmith in the first round and is well on track to being a one-termer in the City Attorney's office.

Congratulations to the Republican Party of San Diego County and Chairman Tony Krvaric for keeping the Republican Party on offense in San Diego County.