Del Mar Fair general manager Tim Fennell will soon be winging his way to balmy Mexico for free, thanks to a favorable ruling from the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission. An October 14 letter to …

In days of yore, the downtown law and lobbying firm of Milch & Wolfsheimer was a city hall heavyweight. Co-founder Lou Wolfsheimer was chairman of the planning commission and one of then-mayor Pete Wilson’s inner …

Last month San Diego's GOP Lincoln Club dispatched a hit piece featuring a grinning Nathan Fletcher standing alongside his onetime Republican backer and George W. Bush intimate Karl Rove. The mailer, aimed at Democratic and …

After the fall of Bob Filner, the San Diego mayor forced from office after a sex-harassment scandal, the biggest winner in the city's latest brush with infamy seemed to be ex-GOP assemblyman Nathan Fletcher. Although …

As is usual with most San Diego political dramas, big real estate money played a major role in the summer campaign to recall embattled San Diego mayor Bob Filner, tainted by a sexual harassment scandal …

It's been another rough-and-tumble week so far for Nathan Fletcher, the newly hatched Democrat and chosen candidate for mayor of La Jolla billionaire/Obama backer/Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs. As reported by U-T San Diego, the onetime …

The battle for San Diego's mayoral seat continues to draw cash from some of the city's biggest special interests, most notably wealthy Republican U-T San Diego publisher Douglas Manchester and archrival/billionaire Democrat Irwin Jacobs, duking …

A campaign committee that goes by the name DRIVE — Democrat, Republican, Independent Voter Education — last week gave $5000 to an independent committee backing the mayoral candidacy of Democratic city councilman David Alvarez. According …

The San Diego Press Club is out with its list of winners, though it didn’t say exactly who won what until yesterday, after our deadline. For certain, though, a few politicos are happy. Victors include …

Taking advantage of the media frenzy surrounding this summer’s Bob Filner sexual harassment scandal, the Hooters chain of beer-and-chicken-wings bistros, which also feature scantily clad young female waitresses, got lots of publicity out of its …

Why did Nathan Fletcher graduate from California Baptist University five years after he was supposed to and what does UCSD know about it? That's one of several major unanswered questions regarding the Democratic candidate for …

There's been a bit of a sea battle royal of late between GOP mayoral candidate Kevin Faulconer and his putative top establishment foe, newly hatched Democrat Nathan Fletcher, over endorsements from big-time Navy brass. Faulconer, …

A nonprofit group that funneled more than $11 million into 2012's California battles over taxes and the political spending of labor-union dues got cash from several unidentified San Diego donors, according to a list released …

Mission Valley's Town and Country hotel, deeply intertwined with the city's long and controversial history of big-money influence and development, may be preparing for a historic change. Built in the 1950s by the late Charlie …

No matter what else might be said about the Republican Lincoln Club, it's nothing if not determined to proceed with its war of the hit pieces against Nathan Fletcher, the ex-GOP state assemblyman-turned-Democrat backed by …

In addition to his Pickens connection, mayoral candidate and city councilman Kevin Faulconer has been collecting big cash from others tied to the Lone Star state. City campaign disclosure records show that David M. Grimes …

California Strategies, the Sacramento-based lobbying outfit founded by San Diego State University star alum and Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger political intimate Bob White, has been making big money of late working for purveyors of …

She rides with the rural horsey set in Rancho Santa Fe, but the heart of Madeleine Pickens, ex-wife of billionaire Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, appears to be in the big city of San Diego. …

Last year, New York's mayor Mike Bloomberg reached a supportive hand across the continent to San Diego, endorsing assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, a newly independent candidate for mayor who had just quit the Republican Party. Political …

The Republican Lincoln Club, which has been trying to tar newly minted Democrat Nathan Fletcher with the brush of GOP stalwart Carl Rove, may have more ammunition for its recent round of hit pieces. According …

He's already given $150,000 to the state Republican Party within the past four weeks and chipped in $25,000 to the GOP Lincoln Club for good measure. Now U-T San Diego owner and real estate magnate …

San Diego's GOP Lincoln Club is out with yet another hit piece in the cascade of direct mail it has launched against newly-minted Democrat Nathan Fletcher as the political proxy war between Republican U-T San …

It’s election season in San Diego, and however unexpected its timing, wealthy folks from all over America have been lining up to make their financial contributions to pay for the TV commercials and hit pieces …

The Chargers may be off to a rocky start this football season, but the same can’t be said of the team-owning Spanos family’s political giving. According to a disclosure dated October 4, the A.G. Spanos …

The Kumeyaay nation’s Sycuan Band of Native Americans, which runs an East County casino and golf course and owns two hotels in downtown San Diego, is spreading its money far and wide this strange special …

How much does it take for the nonprofit San Diego Symphony to cut a deal to provide semi high culture on public land by the bay? By the latest lobbying report of Richard Ledford, it …

Qualcomm has amended its lobbyist disclosure statement to add another task of influence to its already considerable agenda at San Diego’s city hall. According to the document, filed September 26, the corporate giant has dispatched …

Borrego ranch killings by drunken scion two decades ago marked wealthy San Diego bankers and landholders as star-crossed.

Monied super PAC donors weigh in for San Diego Democratic city councilman; GOP givers pick ex-Republican Fletcher as major cash race for mayor intensifies.

Back in the old days, about 1975 or so, San Diegans who liked historical houses and commercial buildings were widely referred to by real estate agents and developers as “hysterical preservationists.” How times have changed. …

California state legislators have a lot of ways to raise and spend special-interest cash for their own relaxation and enjoyment. Take the example of Republican state senator Mark Wyland and his 2010 “officeholders account.” It’s …

Liberal Democrat Bob Filner has been ousted as mayor, and the September 5 meeting of the Mexican American Business and Professional Association appeared to reflect the city’s new order, featuring two of the city’s insiders. …

A bit more light has been shed on funding for that dark money group calling itself “No Labels,” and backed by Democratic ex-president Bill Clinton. Despite Clinton’s endorsement, the non-profit says it is “a growing …

It’s second call for San Diego Democrats and their annual convention at the Pala Casino next month. The sign-up deadline was extended to September 12 to drum up business. “We’ve just confirmed California Assembly Speaker …

Some big news over at Southwest Strategies, the lobbying boutique founded by ex-Tribune city hall reporter Al Ziegaus. The firm, which represents a colorful array of clients, from the MedBox marijuana vending machine company to …

Ramping up for what’s expected to be an all-out company effort to get former GOP assemblyman Nathan Fletcher elected mayor of San Diego, cell phone giant Qualcomm still had plenty of cash for federal candidates, …

With rumblings of revolution and war in the Middle East, maybe summer 2013 wasn’t exactly the best time to take off for a free deluxe tour of Israel, but freshman Democratic congressman Juan Vargas, accompanied …

Telecommunications giant AT&T apparently felt generous back on June 13, anteing up a pair of free tickets to Sacramento’s Sleep Train Arena concert of Pitbull for Crystal Quezada, legislative director for first term San Diego …

An outfit from Chicago that is lobbying here to sell the city of San Diego what it calls “street level mapping and asset identification” for “sidewalk assessments,” has already made some political waves in the …

Up in tony Rancho Santa Fe, the county’s preserve of genteel wealth and privilege — along with a few occasional swindlers, suicide cults, and spies — takes the public interest seriously. A campaign committee called …

There’s good news for Chargers master of disaster Mark Fabiani, and though it doesn’t come from San Diego, it does bear a distinctly familiar back story. Fabiani’s old friend and favored candidate for mayor of …

San Diego’s richest man, La Jolla billionaire Irwin Jacobs, who last year gave more than a million dollars to advance the fortunes of his favorite president, Democrat Barack Obama, is already preparing to help elect …

The election of Democratic state assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez means yet another hungry political mouth to feed around the Barona casino’s tables. On April 6, the Democrat, then a candidate, received a free meal said to …

The federal Department of Health and Human Services is demanding that the State of California give back what the feds claim is $627,000 in unallowable costs run up in San Diego for contraceptive supplies wrongly …

City-hall lobbyist Matt Peterson has a good customer in former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. According to a recently filed disclosure report, the house-remodeling permission specialist was paid a healthy $25,191 by Romney and his …

In the wake of Bob Filner’s sexual harassment blowout, Public Policy Strategies, the lobbying shop owned by the mayor’s erstwhile political guru Tom Shepard, pretty well seems to have followed suit. According to published reports, …

House freshman Democrat Juan Vargas hasn’t yet entirely escaped the shadow of his previous gig as a California state legislator, and now he’s using his clout in Congress to raise big cash to redeem his …

Officially it’s a non-election year, but that didn’t stop Sempra Energy from laying out $541,025 in political expenditures during the first six months of 2013. The California Democratic party picked up $125,000 from the San …

San Diego State University, hit by parched California state finances, is on the hunt for a new million-dollar-plus rainmaker. Says an online help-wanted ad: “The Director of Donor Relations reports directly to the Vice President …

Does icPurple, that so-called independent expenditure committee set up by La Jolla computer mega-millionaire Ted Waitt to back Nathan Fletcher’s run for mayor last year, have a big future? Ex-Assemblyman Fletcher, who switched from Republican …