Debate, endorsements, and a poll from KPBS in San Diego

After two entries using material from California, Why TED Talks won't bring flying cars and Drought emergency declared in California, I'm not ready to return to cold Detroit in my blogging.  Besides, it's a holiday.  To keep myself warm, I'm posting this update to San Diego Mayor's contest heating up, with more news from sunny southern California that was originally posted in the tip jar to Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (California Drought Emergency) on Daily Kos.

Under the blog's "if it moves, it leads" policy, Alvarez, Faulconer Go Negative In First San Diego Mayoral Debate from KPBS comes first.

The two councilmen facing off to become San Diego's next mayor went negative at the first mayoral debate of the run-off election.

More at the accompanying article:

The first debate in the runoff election to pick San Diego’s next mayor was fast and furious, if not necessarily edifying. The KPBS/10News-hosted affair was less a debate and more a recitation of negative talking points. Both candidates hijacked as many questions as possible to point out how the other guy was bought and paid for by special interests.

City Councilman Kevin Faulconer went negative first, reiterating that his colleague and opponent David Alvarez has received nearly $3 million from organized labor, “the same unions that nearly drove this city to bankruptcy,” he said. Faulconer’s other go-to comment seemed to cast himself as immune from outside influence. “I’m independent,” he repeated more than a handful of times.

Alvarez fired back, saying it was Faulconer who was in the pocket of the downtown business elite, “the developers, the big corporations -- those who have enough money to have lobbyists, who have high-paid consultants,” he said. “Not everyday citizens.” Alvarez declared that Faulconer would do whatever his business buddies wanted, keeping powerful interests at the helm of San Diego.

Also, the entire debate is available at the KPBS website.

As for my opinion, if I were living in San Diego, I'd be tempted to write in the name of Interim Mayor Gloria myself.  However, he's already endorsed Alvarez.  Follow over the jump for news on that, early voting, and the latest poll results.

KPBS: Cracking The Endorsement Code In The San Diego Mayor’s Race
By Sandhya Dirks
Originally published January 17, 2014 at 4:47 p.m., updated January 18, 2014 at 9:12 a.m.

Another big endorsement announcement in the race for mayor of San Diego came down on Friday.

Todd Gloria had been dubbed the iMayor — for his interim status in the mayor’s seat, and one supposes, for his fluency with social media. He laid out a progressive vision for San Diego in his State of the City speech and now he’s told us who he wants to implement it: fellow Democrat David Alvarez.

It’s a notable endorsement. Gloria is credited by movers and shakers from both sides of the aisle with steering the city back from the brink of a sexual harassment scandal and negative national attention.

Endorsements like the one from Gloria are coveted on the campaign trail. How effective they are is debatable.

I like writing stories about endorsements for Examiner.com.  They're easy, they say a lot about the candidate, and I can get them early.  Besides, it's an angle my competition isn't as keen on as I am, so endorsements have become one of my specialities.  That written, I think the recommendations in the San Diego Mayor's contest aren't that much about policy as about personality.  They also point to Alvarez being in trouble.

Speaking of trouble, Early Voting For San Diego Mayor, Solana Beach Prop B Underway By City News Service Tuesday, January 14, 2014, means that difficulties now are already causing problems in the vote total.

SAN DIEGO — Early voting for the Feb. 11 San Diego mayoral election and on a ballot measure in Solana Beach got underway Monday.

The county Registrar of Voters office also announced that 341,000 mail ballots were sent out today and should start arriving in mail boxes beginning Tuesday.

Voters in the city of San Diego will choose between Councilmen David Alvarez and Kevin Faulconer to finish the nearly three years left in the term of Bob Filner, who stepped down as mayor Aug. 30.

A 10/News-UT San Diego poll released Sunday showed Faulconer with a 53 percent-to-37 percent advantage among likely voters.

Sixteen points down?  Last week I wrote that it was time to send money.  Alvarez will need lots of it to overcome that margin.