Dumanis campaign guru arranging TV spots for Faulconer

Led by a familiar face in county politics, a campaign fund backing Republican city councilman Kevin Faulconer for mayor is arranging to purchase TV commercials ahead of this coming February's special election in which Faulconer is to face off against Democratic city councilman David Alvarez.

Calling itself San Diegans to Protect Jobs and the Economy, the committee's principal officer is listed as Jennifer Tierney, longtime political guru for an array of local politicos, including superior court judges and GOP district attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who lost her own bid for mayor in 2012 and is raising money for a reelection try next year.

Primary donors to the Tierney advised pro-Faulconer fund included $50,000 from the Building Industry Association and $60,000 from the San Diego Restaurant and Beverage political action committee.

Both groups oppose labor unions, which have so far spent well over seven figures backing Alvarez. According a December 20 disclosure posted online by the Federal Communications Commission, the pro-Faulconer political committee intends to buy commercial time on ABC affiliate KGTV.

Campaign consultant Tierney has long worked for members of the Republican-leaning judicial and law-enforcement establishment here, including Faulconer and his city-council campaign.

As previously reported, in addition to running the Dumanis political account, she was retained by judge Timothy Taylor — a lawyer for two decades with the giant downtown law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, named to the bench by GOP governor Arnold Schwarzenegger — to circulate his nominating petition for election in 2012.

Signatures Tierney gathered for Taylor included those of city councilman Todd Gloria and one of his key backers, Robert Gleason, chief financial officer of Evans Hotels, along with Gleason's spouse, Marc Matys.

Both Gloria and Gleason were supporters of Republican kingpin Terry Brown and his fellow hotel moguls in a legal battle to force then-mayor Bob Filner to sign a lucrative hotel promotion funding agreement negotiated by his predecessor, Republican Jerry Sanders.

The case wound up before Taylor, who issued a statement from the bench after his arrangement with Tierney was first reported here earlier this year.

Based on his March 7 minute order, which he addressed to the parties in the case, Taylor had not previously acknowledged any of the arrangements in question, or previously disclosed the fact that several parties with an interest in the hotel case had signed his nominating petition.

According to Taylor's statement, "Ms. Tierney collected all the signatures. The goal in collecting signatures in this 'blind' fashion was to avoid disqualifying situations."

Taylor later issued a ruling favorable to Filner.

Tierney, who has worked closely with John Kern, a former San Diego Union reporter and onetime aide to GOP ex-mayor Dick Murphy, has also served as campaign guru for Democrat Gloria, currently acting as interim mayor.

In addition to Tierney’s efforts, according to documents posted online by the Federal Communications Commission, Faulconer's own campaign committee has agreed to purchase a net total of $44,994 of time on CBS affiliate KFMB, with the first thirty second spot to air on NFL Today January 6.

The costliest single placement, 30 seconds of time adjacent to the January 26 Grammy awards, will set the committee back $12,500.