Tax and spend

Dick Rider, the taxpayer-activist who went to court back in 1997 in a failed bid to throw out the now-controversial Chargers stadium deal, is out with a cutting critique of the San Diego Taxpayers Association's annual "Taxpayers Hall of Fame." In February 1997, the Taxpayers Association warmly endorsed the Chargers ticket guarantee, with then-president Jack Monger proclaiming, "This is a good deal, a fair deal, a very tough negotiated deal, surely." Observes Rider about this year's Taxpayers' "Hall of Fame" winners: "Pete Wilson? As governor he supported the largest tax increases in CA history during the recession of the early 1990s. He used his line item veto to veto at most ONE QUARTER OF ONE PERCENT of the bloated CA budget. His role as mayor was undistinguished from a taxpayer standpoint. As mayor he favored all county bond measures from any jurisdiction and to my knowledge never opposed a local tax increase on the ballot. Most recently, he is doing ads with Gray Davis to remove the 2/3 voter protection required on the passage of school bonds. Lucy Killea? A moderate Democrat, I guess her claim to fame was she didn't favor as many tax increases as the REST of the Democrats. Judy McCarty? Ballpark? Charger ticket guarantee? Plus, she spearheaded two attempts to raise sales taxes for libraries. Hired in-house help? Well, self-congratulation is to be expected, I suppose." Radio talk-show host and downtown restaurateur Roger Hedgecock, ousted as San Diego mayor in 1985 for his forever infamous campaign-finance shenanigans, is also being inducted into the "Taxpayers" hall. Notes Rider: "Here is the write-up of the deal from the Roger Hedgecock Flashfax of today (Friday). It is interesting that the Hedgecock piece chose to ignore inductees Lucy Killea and the SDCTA in-house hired help -- perhaps because it would have further diluted the significance of Roger's award."

Hillary's list

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They can't vote for her, but some well-heeled La Jollans are using their checkbooks to express their support for First Lady Hillary Clinton's bid for the U.S. Senate in New York. Topping the list with maximum $2000 contributions are traditional Democratic activists Elaine and Murray Galinson, along with James Cahill, an employee of millionaire retailer Sol Price. Price's son Robert and his wife also maxed out. Other local friends of Hillary: Kerry Anderson-Korn of "Rainforest Alliance"; Candace Carroll of the law firm Sullivan, Hill; Scripps newspaper heiress Ellen Revelle Ekis; wealthy civic do-gooder Danah Fayman; class-action lawyer Bill Lerach; Qualcomm's Irwin Mark Jacobs and Steve Altman; Metabolife's Terrence Dapper and Larry Miller; Joseph Ellis, brother of Metabolife's founder Michael Ellis; and Mark Fabiani, the lawyer and longtime Clinton loyalist now living in La Jolla who works for Al Gore ... EMILY's List, the Washington-based women's political advocacy group, has started buying TV ads for six candidates, the Capitol Hill weekly Roll Call reports, and one of them is Democratic House candidate Susan Davis, running against Republican incumbent Brian Bilbray. The direct TV buys are a first for the liberal PAC, which usually "bundles" contributions directly to candidates' individual campaigns, Roll Call notes.

Cats and dogs

Ex-Chargers offensive tackle Stan Brock, now coaching in the Arena Football League, has sued his neighbor in Hillsboro, Oregon, for allegedly killing Brock's pair of Labrador retrievers with a bow and arrow. The neighbor claimed the dogs were threatening feral cats. "We want to set a precedent," Brock's wife Lori told the Seattle Times. "There's a lot of cruelty to animals that we didn't realize until this happened to our dogs."... Padres owner John Moores's JMI Equity Fund has made yet another high-tech investment. This time it's a share of Intellitactics Inc., "a leading security solutions provider" from Ontario, Canada, according to a news release from the company. "Intellitactics is extremely pleased to be working with JMI Equity Fund, a proven winner in the Internet/Intranet infrastructure software space," John Sop, chief executive officer of the company, is quoted as saying.

Contributor: Matt Potter

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