Ex-San Diego City Council Republican and currently termed-out Assembly Democrat Brian Maienschein, who is running for San Diego City Attorney this year, picked up $1500 from the American Property Casualty Insurance Association Cal PAC on December 30 for his ostensible 2030 race for state Attorney General, state filings show.

Six-figure loophole?

Republican County Supervisor Joel Anderson is running for reelection this year. He’s also campaigning for a seat on the Republican County Central Committee. Anderson is raising big money for the latter effort using a loophole in county campaign fundraising law, allowing him to take in $341,928 last year for the Central Committee campaign from an assortment of special interests, per a January 27 disclosure filing. The filing reports that $15,000 came from the Laborers Pacific Southwest Regional Organizing Coalition PAC of Sacramento on September 26. The So Cal District Council of Laborers PAC of Long Beach gave he same November 6. Two $10,000 donors were the Associated Builders & Contractors PAC on July 10 and the Deputy Sheriffs Association of San Diego County PAC on September 26. Laura Nelson of Cass Construction kicked in $4000 on July 24. But the biggest single contribution was made by real estate developer and rental property champion Dan Feder of F&F Properties, with a whopping $25,000 on August 23. Each of those donations far exceeded the $1000 cap on contributions to his county supervisor campaign committee. As the Registrar of Voters website notes, “Individual contribution limits apply for each election and to County Offices Only.”

Joel Anderson: Committee campaign accommodates cash

Last May 13, Feder, an ardent foe of rent control, was limited to giving Anderson’s supervisor re-election committee the legal maximum of $2000, $1000 each for the primary and general elections. “Rent control is a major threat, not just from the property owner’s standpoint, but also for the state of California,” Feder has been quoted as saying in the online newsletter rentalpropertybroker.com. “Nothing works unless there are incentives. What they should be doing is figuring out how more can get built. The San Diego Business Journal had an article about the toughest places to build. Number two is New York. San Diego was number one. Think about that. New York easier than San Diego? We should be embarrassed.”

Meanwhile, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, widely regarded as an odds-on favorite for re-election this year, is also campaigning for a seat on the Democratic Central Committee. His political consultant in that effort, Jennifer Tierney’s Gemini Group of Williamsburg, Virginia, was owed $2000 at the close of the most recent reporting period at the end of last year, per a January 25 disclosure. “When she isn’t working in California,” says Gemini’s website, “Jen stays busy in Virginia, where she is chair of Historic Triangle Democrats, a four-locality local Democratic Committee and a member of the Virginia Democratic Party Central Committee for the 1st Congressional District. She is also vice chair for the Eastern Region of the Virginia Association of Democratic Chairs.” Gloria’s fundraiser Corey Polant was paid $1800 during the period. The mayor’s central committee campaign ended the year with $23,926.

Political journalism

With the San Diego Union-Tribune, owned by vulture investing outfit Alden Global Capital, already suffering from chronic downsizing, yet another local reporting operation also could be about to take a hit. Back in August, the non-profit iNewsource announced it was using money from the freshly established California Local News Fellowship program to hire Philip Salata as its environment and energy reporter. “Made possible through $25 million in state funding and a new state law, the fellowship, run by UC Berkeley Journalism, will provide two-year reporting fellowships to 120 early career journalists over the next five years,” said iNewsource. “The fellows will be placed in newsrooms across California.” 

H.D. Palmer isn’t so sure about local news funding.

But now a new report by the San Francisco Chronicle says the program may soon fall victim to a looming state deficit, prompting another round of devastating newsroom layoffs. “Prior to publication, California Department of Finance spokesperson H.D. Palmer confirmed that the funding could be part of $350 million in proposed cuts to ‘legislative requests’ that had not yet been specified by [Governor Gavin] Newsom,” says the January 23 account “After publication, Palmer contacted the Chronicle saying that he had checked with staff in the department who said the governor was not explicitly calling for the funding to be cut. Budget negotiations are ongoing, and the projected deficit — and, by extension, the proposed cuts — could shrink or grow between now and June when the final budget is due.” In the meantime, reporters and other staffers at the New York Daily News became the latest Alden employees to walk out for a day. “About 40 members of the Daily News union walked a picket line in the rain around a Midtown Manhattan office building where the News maintains a co-working space that can fit only six people, according to union leaders,” reported Rupert Mudoch’s New York Post January 25. “A Daily News reporter confirmed to The Post that more than 94% of the union is participating in the walkout — roughly 50 workers. ‘The hedge fund has made changes to overtime policies without bargaining, and now refuse to pay unless the new policies are followed,’ said a letter from the union announcing the walkout.”

Maienschein mayhem

Ex-San Diego City Council Republican and currently termed-out Assembly Democrat Brian Maienschein, who is running for San Diego City Attorney this year, picked up $1500 from the American Property Casualty Insurance Association Cal PAC on December 30 for his ostensible 2030 race for state Attorney General, state filings show. With insurance rates soaring, ostensibly due to wildfires, insurers apparently need all the political clout they can get. “There’s no place to hide from these severe natural disasters,” David Sampson, president of the association told The Washington Post in September of last year. “They’re happening all over the country and so insurers are having to relook at their risk concentration.”

Noted the Orange County Register in September after a deal with the industry collapsed: “Negotiations for a legislative solution considered whether to allow companies to use forward-looking catastrophe models, rather than past losses, to set insurance rates, as they are already allowed to do for earthquakes; whether to let them factor reinsurance into their prices; how to set assessments for the FAIR Plan; how to speed up regulatory review of rate increase requests; and whether to require insurers to operate in communities with the biggest threat of wildfires.”

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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