Del Martian bust-out

A major battle over the fate of the Del Mar Fairgrounds may be shaping up in Sacramento later this year, judging from a description of work filed by Capitol Strategic Advisors, lobbyists for the 22nd District Agricultural Association, which controls the land. The influence-peddlers are being paid $90,000 to lobby for a “master plan for modernization & development of property.” …

An independent expenditure committee backing former lobbyist Chris Cate for city council in this past November’s San Diego elections has filed an end-of-year statement revealing it received $11,000 on October 30 from the Lakes at Escondido, a Beverly Hills real estate development corporation. Formerly known as Stuck in the Rough, the firm lost its November initiative battle to force development of a condo complex on the old Escondido Country Club over neighbors’ objections. Other big donations to the backers of Republican Cate’s successful council bid included $60,000 from the American Hotel and Lodging Association of Washington, D.C. …

Members of the San Diego City Council have been accused by some business lobbyists of misguidedly meddling in issues tangential at best to their mission of running the city, including global warming. Now comes Biocom, a lobbying group for the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, with its own special desire. According to a December 23 lobbyist disclosure filing, the organization is seeking to educate the council on a “potential city position” regarding “patent litigation.”