Trick or Treat

San Diego — The partisan infighting that has marked this year's school board race between nominal Democrat Katherine Nakamura and the GOP's Michael McSweeney was ratcheted up considerably last week when the AFL-CIO's San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council dispatched a round of so-called robo-calls to Democratic voters. The script, read by someone using a child's voice, warns against electing McSweeney. "Something scary is coming to San Diego, and it's not Halloween," the call begins. "The vice chair of San Diego's Republican Party is running for San Diego Unified school board. Republican Mike McSweeney has disguised himself as a moderate, but he is really a right-wing extremist who will destroy the balance of the school board. I hope you will vote to protect my school and all the kids in San Diego's public schools. On November 7, please vote for Democrat Katherine Nakamura. This has been paid for by thousands of teachers, nurses, and firefighters of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council. Thank you." A spokeswoman for the San Diego Education Association, the union that represents teachers at San Diego Unified, says that the group has not endorsed anyone in the race. ... Former San Diego City Council candidate Lorena Gonzalez, who lost out in January to Republican Kevin Faulconer in the race to replace Michael Zucchet in the second district, despite heavy infusions of cash from labor unions, is now political director for the labor council, run by Jerry Butkiewicz. ... San Diego's Sempra Energy, the utility giant that relies on the state's power of condemnation to create rights-of-way for its oft-controversial transmission projects, has given $100,000 to defeat Prop 90, the measure that would heavily restrict government's power of eminent domain over private property. San Diego's Affirmed Housing Group, which develops senior housing using various governmental programs, kicked in $1000.