Strange bedfellows

What does San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders have in common with Bill Maher, Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, and Brad Pitt? He was named a “Hero of Love” to those fighting Prop 8, last year’s anti-gay-marriage measure. “Though he was attacked and vilified by fellow members of the Republican Party, and targeted for defeat in the next election, he never wavered from his opposition to the measure and campaigned to defeat it,” says a profile on the website of the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center. … Freshman city council member Carl DeMaio continues to loan big bucks to his political action committee, which he’s dubbed San Diego Citizens for Accountable Government. According to campaign disclosure records on file at city hall, the councilman personally lent the group $200,000 on December 15 of last year. In June, he made two loans totaling $50,000. Just $900 came in from other contributors, including $300 from real estate broker Thomas Mullaney; $100 from retiree George Gerrodette; and $500 from the Palomar Card Club. The committee made a number of small expenditures during the period, including $1150 for a poll and other research on a “planned pension reform measure.” At the end of the year, the group had $240,332 of cash in the bank. Late last year, a lawyer for the City’s Ethics Commission advised that the fund could not be used to promote DeMaio’s political career directly but could spend its money to sponsor any bona fide ballot measures he came up with. … Ex-city councilman Scott Peters spent a grand total of $530,500 of his own money in his failed race for city attorney, according to a year-end disclosure filed with the state. In addition the wealthy La Jollan gave $6000 to state Attorney General Jerry Brown, who dissed then-incumbent Mike Aguirre during his reelection effort.