Extremism in the defense of politics

Just how ideologically polarized is San Diego’s state legislative delegation? Pretty much, judging from a recently released scorecard of how legislators voted on a series of critical bills. But some are more absolute than others. According to the survey, conducted by Sacramento-based, nonpartisan Capitol Weekly — in which a perfect liberal score was 100 and a perfect conservative score was zero — El Cajon’s Republican assemblyman Joel Anderson was tied with six of his GOP colleagues for most conservative, all with zeroes. North County assemblyman Martin Garrick wasn’t far behind, with a 2. By comparison, La Jolla’s George Plescia looked like a raving liberal, with 15, and Chula Vista’s Shirley Horton was even further to the left, with 22. Crossing the aisle to the Democrats, San Diego’s Lori Saldaña posted the delegation’s most liberal voting record at 97. Chula Vista’s Mary Salas had a 94.

Over in the senate, Escondido’s Mark Wyland tied with four of his GOP colleagues, all of whom came in with zeroes. Democrat Denise Ducheny looked more like a moderate, with 73. By contrast, her Democratic colleague Christine Kehoe was awarded 100. Among the assembly votes sampled were those on gay marriage (Saldaña and Salas, yes; Anderson, Garrick, Horton, and Plescia, no) and handing out condoms to prisoners to help prevent AIDS behind bars (Saldaña, yes; Salas, not voting; all the Republicans, no). … JMI Realty, the development outfit belonging to Padres owner John Moores, has just registered to lobby the state legislature regarding two of the firm’s big projects: Ballpark Village in San Diego and a condo development near the train station in Fullerton. Representing JMI will be KP Public Affairs, the home of David Takashima, a former top aide to ex–Democratic state senator Steve Peace, who currently works for Moores. The firm also represents Petco and the Barona tribe.