Breaking Stories: Poli-manna

San Diego — San Diego city attorney Mike Aguirre hasn't been much of a friend to realtors and development interests during his controversy-filled tenure, so it's probably not that much of a surprise that the local Republican Party -- which staged a news conference last week to highlight contributions Aguirre had gotten from some of his underlings -- is laden with real estate and development-industry cash. According to the latest financial disclosure statement, covering the first half of this year, the county's GOP central committee raised a total of $95,000. Donors included the San Diego Board of Realtors political action committee, which gave $10,000; the Associated Builders and Contractors, which kicked in $1000; and the Builders, Associates, Contractors PAC, also down for $1000. Aguirre has also been talking lately of reforming local trash-disposal laws with a hefty dose of recycling, and big waste companies that oppose him are also Republican stalwarts; in the latest disclosure period Ware Disposal Company came up with $1000.

Then there was the GOP's biggest single donor, Atlas Hotels, owned by Mission Valley lodging mogul Terry Brown, who for years has been mixing it up at city hall. In March of this year, Aguirre's office reached a $1 million settlement agreement with Brown's Town and Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, which in 2005 built an illegal parking lot on one bank of the San Diego River. On April 19, Atlas gave the GOP $22,360.