Maybe Ed Asner didn’t help Peter Navarro

The Ed and Peter show

Though it went unmentioned in last week’s coverage of his passing by the latest incarnation of the Union-Tribune, Ed Asner played various roles in San Diego politics. The Los Angeles actor and Screen Actors Guild ex-president, who died at 91 on August 29, marched together with farmworkers champion Cesar Chavez in February 1990 against then-U-T publisher Helen Copley’s effort to rid herself of the Newspaper Guild. Despite Asner’s best efforts, the labor union was finally ousted from the plant by a narrow vote of U-T workers in June 1998, convinced by then-editor Karin Winner that the paper and its workers would prosper without it. Then there was the TV spot Asner shot on behalf of then-Democrat Peter Navarro, later a controversial advisor to President Donald Trump.

The University of California Irvine professor and San Diego anti-growth torchbearer lost his mayoral bid against Republican Susan Golding in 1992 before running for congress, again without success, as Hillary Clinton’s endorsed candidate against GOP incumbent Bryan Bilbray in 1996. “Let me confess that Ed Asner was not my first choice to do the ‘Vote of Your Life’ commercial,” wrote Navarro in his memoir, “San Diego Confidential,” published here in 1998. “The person I really wanted for this third-party validation was former San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor — one of the most beloved, respected, and trusted women in my little town.” But “Maureen didn’t even want to talk to me. The only thing that the reclusive ex-mayor would do in this campaign was mail me a campaign donation and then go blow ten grand at the Jackie O auction.” Navarro wrote that he reluctantly turned to the super-liberal Asner, a member of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee who had backed El Salvadorian rebels and tussled with President Ronald Reagan over the 1981 air traffic controllers’ strike. But he was different on TV. “When Ed Asner sat down in that studio chair to do the Vote of Your Life ad, the transformation was mesmerizing. On that throne, he became the Force, the Buddha, the Voice of Authority, and Everybody’s Lovable Teddy Bear of a Grandfather all rolled into one magnificent and weighty presence. You would just have to love and trust this guy and do whatever he recommended — or so I thought.” Concluded Navarro, “I love Ed Asner, and I’m grateful to him for his help. I also greatly respect him for his political activism. However, I must live with the haunting possibility that the Asner TV ad did at least as much harm as it did good,” Navarro added. “The ad was powerful and perfect — except for the messenger.”

Faulconer’s Fracking Funds

A firm belonging to Bob “Sully” Sullivan, KUSI-TV’s financial reporting star, has come up with $23,900 for San Diego Republican ex-mayor Kevin Faulconer’s 2021 bid for governor, per a September 1 disclosure report. Sully Entertainment Group, LLC, gave the money the previous day. Texas-based Seneca Resources Company, the methane fracking subsidiary of the National Fuel Gas Co, with an office in Bakersfield, kicked in $15,000 the same day. Incumbent Democrat Gavin Newsom, the target of the September 14 recall election in which Faulconer hopes to replace him, issued an April order to shut down oil fracking by 2024. The move set off industry protests and some from climate-change activists who said it didn’t go far enough. Todd Stevens of newly formed oil and gas prospector Black Knight Energy LLC gave $2500 to Faulconer on August 27. In a previous role as CEO of California Resources Corporation, Stevens gave Newsom’s original campaign for governor $10,000, according to a September 21, 2020, dispatch by Jacobinmag.com.

Beering it up in Sacramento

Democrats in the state legislature are tanking up on plenty of corporate campaign cash during the summer doldrums. California Senate pro tem Toni Atkins of San Diego took in $25,000 from Anheuser Busch Companies on August 2 for her California Works: Senator Toni Atkins Ballot Measure Committee, a filing of the same day shows. Senator Ben Hueso’s bid for a spot on the state Board of Equalization next year pulled in $5000 from the Los Angeles Police Protective League PAC on August 30. Shirley Weber’s Secretary of State 2022 election committee got $6000 from Netflix founder Reed Hastings on August 18. Our Voice Our Vote, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’s Ballot Measure Committee, received $5000 from Sempra Energy on August 18. Her 2022 reelection committee got $6,021 from Cox Communications on August 20.

— Matt Potter (@sdmattpotter)

The Reader offers $25 for news tips published in this column. Call our voice mail at 619-235-3000, ext. 440, or sandiegoreader.com/staff/matt-potter/contact/.