Loony

One of the oddest political websites this season is spikemike.com, a full-on — if not particularly artful — attack on San Diego city attorney Mike Aguirre. At the top of the page is a video showing a couple and their small dog watching Aguirre on TV. As Aguirre says “I could have had the support of the powerbrokers if I’d gone along with their financial scheme,” the pup goes ballistic, yapping at the screen until Aguirre’s visage switches to a commercial for Aguirre’s GOP foe Jan Goldsmith. A deep-voiced announcer then intones, “Sometimes, you have to go with your instincts. Spike Mike.” A line at the bottom of the page says, “Not authorized by a candidate or committee controlled by a candidate” but doesn’t offer a clue to its sponsors. As it turns out, the site is bankrolled by the San Diego County Lincoln Club, a group of pro-development, Republican business types. According to state disclosure forms, the group paid $9500 to Sacramento consultant Mike Madrid to gather anti-Aguirre hits from the Union-Tribune and throw up the seemingly amateurish site. “There was a lot of Aguirre stuff to work with,” says Madrid, explaining the relatively high price he charged. Among those helping to finance the Lincoln Club’s endeavors in recent weeks, including the anti-Aguirre effort: talk show host Roger Hedgecock ($2500); Sempra Energy ($100,000); and Suncoast Financial Mortgage Corporation ($10,000), the company of David Malcolm, who pled guilty in April 2003 to a felony conflict-of-interest charge arising from a South Bay power plant deal he secretly engineered while a port commissioner.