Godless politics

Sometimes Facebook pages are revealing because of what they omit about their owners. Take the case of political consultant Larry Remer, fresh from Democrat Juan Vargas’s razor-thin victory over Mary Salas in the 40th District state senate primary race. Remer’s Primacy Group masterminded an independent campaign for Vargas, backed by seven figures' worth of independent expenditures made by a host of insurance companies and other big corporations. The bevy of corporate interests waged war against Salas, the liberal in the race, on behalf of Vargas, an ex–insurance industry lobbyist. But in the land of Facebook, Remer, who nearly 40 years ago worked with leftist Tom Hayden and then-wife Jane Fonda, describes himself as “an unrepentant 60s activist” and an “Agnostic or Atheist (not sure which).” Remer’s latest topic: a new parcel tax that the San Diego Unified School District wants to levy. His Facebook page features photos from an African safari he took with ex–school board member Ron Ottinger…Meanwhile, termed-out Democratic senator Denise Ducheny, whose seat Vargas and Salas are tussling over, is still raising money for her so-called officeholder committee, a virtual slush fund sanctioned by state law. In the first half of the year, $19,799 came in from special interests including Anthem Blue Cross ($1000), BioCom PAC ($1000), ConocoPhillips ($1000), Wine Institute PAC ($1500), AT&T ($1000), and Owens-Illinois ($1000). Expenditures included $105 at Shanghai’s Jin Jiang hotel, $813 for a fund-raiser at Sacramento’s Aioli Bodega Española, and $232 for a meeting at “Hot Corona Ti” in Ensenada, Mexico. The Southern Group, a political management company run by Ducheny’s husband Al, was paid a total of $22,238.