Gore became sheriff without a public vote.

Release of a state audit substantiating years of Union-Tribune reporting on county jail deaths during the rule of Republican Sheriff Bill Gore has insiders talking up the possibility of a last Pulitzer Prize for the fast-fading print daily.

But it could be a different story for the paper's editorialists, who spent years helping to keep Gore in office by endorsing him for reelection despite a growing torrent of damning news, then playing down their support for the ultimately out-of-favor sheriff.

Gore owed his sheriff's job to another of the paper's favored sheriffs, Bill Kolender, who abruptly announcedhis retirement in April 2009.

To critics, Kolender's sudden departure was part of a behind-the-scenes succession scenario in cahoots with the U-T whereby Gore was appointed sheriff by the county's Republican board of supervisors, allowing him to run for the job as an incumbent the following year.

In an April 5, 2009 editorial, the U-T urged supervisors to install a permanent successor instead of making an interim appointment to replace Kolender and "let the political cards play out as they may."

"Not surprisingly, Kolender's decision to step down early, due to his wife's ill health, has spurred early wrangling by several candidates who hope to succeed him by winning election next year," said the editorial.

"Most of these contenders want the board of supervisors to refrain from naming a new sheriff in the meantime because they fear the appointed incumbent would have a strong political advantage going into the June 2010 primary. Their self-serving stance is certainly no reason for the supervisors to leave the sheriff's job vacant for a year and a half."

Gore thus became sheriff without a public vote, subsequently employing the power of incumbency, campaign money, and U-T endorsements to get elected to the position three times, beginning in 2010.

Kolender's sudden departure was part of a behind-the-scenes succession scenario.

In the first race, the private prison company GEO Group, seeking to renew a lease for space at downtown’s county jail, gave $2000 to the then-interim sheriff's election campaign.

Cash also flowed into the sheriff's campaigns from the likes of Democratic ex-school board chief Alan Bersin, Republican hotel magnate C. Terry Brown, and GOP mayoral insider and port commissioner Stephen Cushman.

A month before the U-T's purchase by Los Angeles billionaire Patrick Soon Shiong from Tronc on June 18, 2018, the paper endorsed Gore's reelection in a May 18 editorial, despite the paper's coverage of burgeoning jail deaths under Gore's administration.

"Contrary to his Democratic opponent's view that Gore, a Republican, is resistant to change, the sheriff made a plausible case in an interview with us that he is open to criticism and ready to embrace new approaches," said the editorial.

"His department appears to have an appropriate appreciation of suspects' mental health issues, reflected in its hiring of mental health clinicians and arguably in the decline of jail suicides."

The result was to help cement Gore into office for yet another four-year term. At the same time, the U-T continued its cascade of coverage of mounting jail deaths, officially validated by a California state audit released February 2.

"From 2006 through 2020, 185 people died in San Diego County's jails—one of the highest totals among counties in the state," wrote acting state auditor Michael Tilden.

"The department's reviews of in‑custody deaths have been insufficient and have not consistently led to significant corrective action.

"In addition, the Citizens' Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB)—a citizen‑governed board approved by San Diego County voters to restore public confidence in county law enforcement—has failed to provide effective, independent oversight of in‑custody deaths."

Months before, in July of 2021, Gore announced he wouldn't run for reelection. A Union-Tribune editorial that month maintained the paper had endorsed his reelection only "tepidly" in 2018, "but has criticized him repeatedly in recent years for the deaths. We welcome his decision to move on."

Over the editorial ran a disclaimer proclaiming, "The editorial board operates independently from the U-T newsroom but holds itself to similar ethical standards."

When Gore abruptly announced January 19 that he would retire on February 3, well ahead of the end of his final term, but conveniently a day before the critical audit's announced release date, the paper intoned, "The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board thanks Gore for five decades of public service in law enforcement — but hopes his successor is an improvement."