What a difference a year can make. Last August, La Jolla–based GOP political consultant Bob Schuman had a big winner on his hands in the form of a freshly minted presidential super PAC, Americans for …

Congressman Bob Filner, running for mayor against city councilman Carl DeMaio, is being warily eyed by the ranks of the city’s lobbyists. But after his recent flip-flop in support of Irwin Jacobs’s controversial plan to …

Shamu bucks GOP county supervisor Ron Roberts has been getting credit for a lot of free SeaWorld passes lately, donations made at the “behest” of Roberts by the Competitor Group, the San Diego–based outfit that …

Super PAC icPurple, set up by Gateway computer megamillionaire Ted Waitt of La Jolla to back the failed independent mayoral campaign of ex-GOP state assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, is still in business. According to the committee’s …

Rock de AT&T It was a penultimate series of sorts: the almost-final round of dining and entertainment freebies accepted by staffers of Democratic state senator Juan Vargas, odds-on favorite to win the 51st District seat …

MJE Marketing, the lobbying outfit that’s been helping to push the controversial Irwin Jacobs Balboa Park makeover through city hall, picked up another $31,000 for its services in the second quarter of the year, recent …

Speaking of Ron Fowler, the voluble Del Mar resident spent a total of $35,224 on campaign contributions during the first half of this year, according to a major donor statement filed with the California secretary …

It was fun and food in the Gaslamp Quarter at Lou & Mickey’s restaurant and bar for Republican state senator Anthony Cannella and his scheduler Jamie Mori and chief of staff Dillon Gibbons, thanks to …

A few SDSU sports honchos were included on a courtesy flight from Alaska Airlines.

Downtown super-lobbyist Paul Robinson had a solid second quarter, according to a disclosure statement filed last week by his law and lobbying firm, Hecht Solberg Robinson Goldberg and Bagley. His top client, the Grand Del …

San Diego’s own Sempra Energy may have had its hands full this spring dealing with the shutdown of the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant it owns a piece of, but that didn’t keep Sacramento …

Tuition is going through the roof, and local community college enrollees have been barred from mid-year transfers, but California taxpayer-supported San Diego State University is spending real money to attract one special category of new …

Prop 37 would require labeling of food made from genetically modified ingredients.

Public television station KPBS, owned and operated by San Diego State University, is looking for a new reporter for its Mexican-border beat, according to a recent posting on the website of SDSU’s Research Foundation. According …

Democratic state senator Juan Vargas, whom many regard as a virtual shoo-in for Congress after his victory last month over ex–state senator Denise Ducheny, a fellow Democrat, still has a few major bills outstanding from …

Fourth District San Diego councilman Tony Young caused a disgruntled stir in some quarters when word got around city hall in late June that he was taking the month of July off to attend a …

If there were any uncertainties about Bill Horn’s intention to run for reelection yet again in 2014, the incumbent GOP county supervisor dispelled them on July 4 by signing a “candidate intention statement” he filed …

Water bills are soaring, and angry ratepayers are pounding at the doors. What is a water district to do except lay out some big bucks to hire a new public relations person? Such is the …

A bipartisan delegation of 13 congressional staffers took an all-expenses-paid spring junket to Hollywood and San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, courtesy of a lobbying group called the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. “The excitement that the …

San Diego Democratic congressman Bob Filner, in a hurry to close out his old House campaign finance account so he can get on with his run for mayor against GOP city councilman Carl DeMaio, may …

The proposal period has closed over at the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority for “Seasonal Decorations” at Lindbergh Field. Without specifying which holidays are to be commemorated, the authority asked for “Professional Seasonal Decoration …

San Diego State University–run and taxpayer-subsidized public television and radio operation KPBS, troubled of late by severe money woes, is looking to hire yet another fundraiser, this one a hard-charging corporate rainmaker to sell advertising …

Bridgepoint Education, the controversial private schools outfit that’s been up and down on Wall Street, was busy handing out freebies to local politicos last year, annual disclosures show. Chief among the beneficiaries was recently reelected …

Another influence peddler with deep San Diego roots is reporting a good year thus far. Sacramento-based California Strategies and Advocacy was founded by Bob White, the onetime social director of San Diego State fraternities who …

Victory in the race for San Diego mayor, most inside observers predict, will come down to which candidate can raise the most money and deploy his cash most effectively. So far, GOP candidate Carl DeMaio …

As local news staffs shrink and California State University tuition soars, the ranks of state-taxpayer-funded public relations people continue to burgeon. The latest example comes from San Diego State University, which is looking to hire …

Facing only a token challenge in her bid for reelection this year, San Diego county supervisor Dianne Jacob raised plenty of campaign cash from the familiar litany of special interests with business before the board. …

Most public workers may be singing the blues about their pension systems, but at least one is going all the way to the bank. Bernie Rhinerson, chief of staff at the San Diego Unified School …

San Diego’s third district councilman Todd Gloria, who ran unopposed in this month’s city election, nevertheless went all out to collect big campaign money from a host of special interests with business at city hall. …

Though the state’s budget meltdown has boosted tuition and drastically cut local admissions, somebody at the University of California San Diego apparently thinks the show must go on, literally. That seems to be the message …

Lobbyist Marco Polo Cortes, another big last-minute giver to Councilman Todd Gloria’s cause, has kept a busy schedule at San Diego’s city hall, according to a recently filed lobbyist disclosure statement. Besides hosting a Gloria …

San Diego county sheriff Bill Gore has put out word that he’s in the market for 25 brand-new Smith & Wesson M&P15 AR .223 rifles, each to be equipped with an EOtech 512A65 holographic weapon …

As money troubles continue to pile up at San Diego State University’s owned-and-operated KPBS public broadcasting operation, the university’s tax-exempt foundation is advertising for help. According to a job notice recently posted on the nonprofit’s …

So-called behesting, the process by which state and local politicians request — and sometimes pressure — lobbyists and other special interests to give money to their favorite charities, is alive and well in San Diego. …

Tom Karlo, the general manager of public broadcasting operation KPBS, owned and operated by San Diego State University, makes $215,262 a year, according to state salary records obtained by the Sacramento Bee under the California …

In days of yore, the best way for San Diego cops to keep track of intelligence picked up on the street was to take it down in their little white notebooks. Clearly those days are …

Mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher’s somewhat tumultuous upbringing.

Ex–San Diego city councilman Jim Madaffer, who fought for years with then–San Diego State president Steve Weber over redevelopment plans for the school’s sprawling campus just off Interstate 8, has put the full weight of …

It’s not just family patriarch Irwin Jacobs, billionaire founder of Qualcomm, who is handing out the big political money this campaign season. Son Harlan, who has signed on as a backer of mayoral candidate Nathan …

Former San Diego County Regional Airport Authority boardmember Xema Jacobson, once business manager for the San Diego County Building Trades Council and an ex–chief of staff to Democratic city councilwoman Marti Emerald, is now in …

One very busy city hall lobbyist is Richard Ledford, the former aide to GOP ex-mayor Susan Golding. According to his most recent disclosure filing, covering the first three months of this year, Ledford got $8000 …

San Diego County sheriff Bill Gore is back shopping for riot gear. This time the FBI veteran is in the market for nineteen 40mm pump-action “multi-launchers.” Made by Penn Arms of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the town …

California Strategies & Advocacy, the Sacramento-based lobbying firm founded and run by Bob White, former top aide to ex–San Diego mayor and onetime GOP governor Pete Wilson, had a busy time of it in San …

San Diego–based United Domestic Workers of America, a labor union representing so-called home-care workers who are paid by state and federal funds, kicked in with a whopping $400,000 to Governor Jerry Brown’s campaign to raise …

The public relations team on the La Jolla campus of the University of California San Diego is widely regarded in the world of academic flackery as one of the best in the taxpayer-financed business. Every …

La Jolla billionaire Irwin Jacobs has contributed $10,000 to Taxpayers for Public Safety, a group that wants to abolish the death penalty, replacing it with life in prison without the possibility of parole. The politically …

San Diego State University’s $400,000 man, president Elliot Hirshman, is looking for a $45,000- to $50,000-a-year ghostwriter to be his “presidential communications manager,” according to a recent post by the university on the career networking …

Ex–San Diego State University athletic director Jeff Schemmel exited Aztec Mesa back in November 2009, ejected by then–president Stephen Weber after it came to light in a divorce case that Schemmel had spent state funds …

Attention all spies: San Diego county sheriff Bill Gore, himself an ex–FBI special agent, is in the market for those schooled in the dark arts of espionage. “The Sheriff’s Department is seeking proposals from qualified …

Now that the Republican presidential race has been pretty much decided in Mitt Romney’s favor, staffers for the long roster of losing candidates are once again back on the job market. Those who might have …