Competition for donor contributions between San Diego non-profit reporting outlets could be set to reach unprecedented levels, judging from a gauntlet-throwing January 31 pitch for money by the website of San Diego State University-based inewsource.

Old San Diego redux

Competition for donor contributions between San Diego non-profit reporting outlets could be set to reach unprecedented levels, judging from a gauntlet-throwing January 31 pitch for money by the website of San Diego State University-based inewsource. “This community-supported fund will power our newsroom through the rest of this year and beyond, making possible the accountability reporting that holds government and powerful interests to account,” writes inewsource managing editor Mark J. Rochester.

“That’s what distinguishes inewsource from other local media: we focus on finding problems in San Diego and Imperial counties that affect quality of life in the area and exposing them so they can be fixed.” The item also appears to offer a not-so-subtle swipe at the Union-Tribune, the San Diego daily owned by Los Angeles billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong.

Mark J. Rochester is happy to subtract the ads.

“Traditional advertising-heavy news organizations have been steadily plummeting for years, reducing both their delivery of news products and the issues they cover. No one else is going to provide the kind of fact-based, nonpartisan watchdog reporting that inewsource does.”

The outfit has already collected a lot of cash for what it calls its “Investigative News Fund, exposing injustice and holding power to account,” per Rochester’s account. “In order to launch the Investigative News Fund, we needed to raise an initial $500,000 for the effort, and we’ve done that. The successful completion of that fundraising campaign is in itself an important step in this program. It shows that local residents care enough about our accountability journalism and its value to support it with their hard-earned dollars.”

An accompanying donor list, minus the amount of each contribution, includes some of the city’s biggest political influencers, including ex-city manager, developer, and San Diego State booster Jack McGrory, as well as Mel Katz, along with Manpower, Katz’s lucrative temporary help outfit. Chairman of the board of the San Diego County Water Authority, Katz “has been serving on the Legislation and Public Outreach Committee, along with appointments to the Administrative and Finance Committee, the Labor Negotiations Work Group, the Project Labor Agreement Work Group,” says a September 2022 release by the agency. “Katz is also the Water Authority’s representative to the San Diego Association of Governments.”

Among his many hefty donations to political causes, San Diego records show, Katz gave $5000 on December 16, 2021, to a group calling itself New San Diego. The committee used the money for a fusillade of 2022 hit pieces against city council candidate and former Assembly Democrat Lori Saldana, who was enmeshed in a three-way primary with fellow Democrat and council incumbent Jen Campbell and Republican hopeful Linda Lukacs. The anti-Saldana effort was widely credited with her narrow third-place defeat.

Campbell went on to easily beat Lukacs in the November runoff, an objective favored by Katz and much of the local business establishment, including San Diego Gas & Electric and its parent Sempra Energy, which gave $2500 to New San Diego on December 20, 2021, according to a January 22 company filing with the California Secretary of State. Following revelation by the Reader on May 18, 2022 of Sempra’s donation, the company got its New San Diego contribution back a week later, on May 25, per Sempra’s July 27, 2022 semi-annual disclosure filing.

Besides his New San Diego contribution, Katz also gave directly to Campbell, city records show, kicking in $650 each on June 10 and 20 of last year. Katz is also listed as a “major donor” to inewsource funding competitor, the similarly non-profit Voice of San Diego news operation, coming up with between $10,000 to $49,999 “in the last year,” per the group’s website.

Becker’s flip-flop

County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher’s campaign kitty for his state Assembly race continues to grow, with big dollops of local special interest cash. On January 30, Sunroad Enterprises president Aaron Feldman came up with a total of $10,000, according to a January 31 disclosure filing.

Wendy Carrillo supped sumptuously with Sempra.

The company is the developer of more than 3150 new dwelling units on unincorporated South Bay property as part of a controversial project named Otay 250 Sunroad, per a December 2021 Union-Tribune account: “In 2018, project lead Uri Feldman told the county Planning Commission that his company’s request to rezone the land for homes came in direct response to the desire of businesses looking to locate in the area.” Another prominent developer, Goldhaven Inc. dba The Raymond Companies of Escondido, came up with a total of $11,000 for the Fletcher cause on January 24...

State senate Democrat Ben Hueso got a free $39.70 meal at Karinas Ceviche Bar N Tacos on October 31 of last year from Sempra Energy, per state disclosure filings. Assembly Democrat Wendy Carrillo did better by the utility giant, getting a free $127.94 repast at tony Il Fornaio in Pasadena on October 4. Meanwhile, state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara picked up a gratis $58 meal on October 7 at the Barona Resort and Casino in Lakeside…

The so-called ballot measure committee belonging to Senate Democratic leader Toni Atkins, now again being called “California Works: Senator Toni Atkins Ballot Measure Committee,” reported on January 27 that it got $12,000 from the “Senator Becker Justice and Climate Ballot Measure Committee” back on October 29 of last year. That was when the Atkins fund, campaigning for the ultimately successful Prop 1 pro-abortion measure, was known as the Yes on Proposition 1 committee.

Around the same time that the Becker committee made its contribution, its operator, Senate Democrat Josh Becker of Menlo Park, revoked his endorsement of San Mateo city council hopeful Rod Linhares. The move followed controversy over Linhares’s job as fundraising director for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco. “I explained I’d have to pull back my endorsement to focus on my advocacy for Prop. 1,” Becker said in a statement. “He was very gracious and understood. I wish him well in his race.”  Linhares, who had come out against Prop 1, narrowly lost.

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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