The Filner bashing in the MSM has been deafening, but to people who have been paying attention we have seen that this recall effort was in the works long before any allegations of sexual misconduct emerged.
November 6, 2012:
Filner is the first Democrat elected in 20 years as mayor of San Diego.
December 3, 2012:
Filner takes office.
January 1, 2013:
A Facebook site was created called "San Diego deserves better" laying the groundwork for a recall effort. "Holding San Diego Mayor Bob Filner accountable for his history of physical confrontation, outbursts, bullying tactics and overall inability to govern and represent San Diego in a manner fitting America's Finest City."
The corresponding website www.sandiegodeservesbetter.com was also created months earlier.
It was created in Scottsdale Arizona 2011-05-22 19:51:15 by Domains by Proxy which is a way for web owners to keep the domains owners personal information safe from the public eye.
January 7, 2013:
The domain name recallfilner.com was registered by the same company 2013-01-07 13:13:42 to keep the owners information private---so was the domain name recallbobfilner.com and recallmayorfilner.com .
April 22, 2013
VOSD which receives a large amount of funding from Plaza De Panama backer Irwin Jacobs published an article on the City's recall process. Zachary Warma writes The Rocky Road to Recall addressing the challenges and the hurdles of the recall process.
May 6, 2013
VOSD publishes an article showing Jan Goldmith scrambling to figure out how to fix San Diego's recall rules to make ousting Filner easier. Zachary Warma writes City’s Recall Provision Likely Unconstitutional.
June 3, 2013
This is the date that citizens by statute, must wait before they launch a recall effort.
June 21, 2013
The Recall Bob Filner Facebook page is launched. (Still no sexual allegations of misconduct.)
July 10, 2013
Donna Frey, Cory Briggs and Marco Gonzalez call a press conference to demand Filner resign over allegations of sexual misconduct.
July 11, 2013
10News does a story on how the Republicans have been following Filner with a Private Investigator and a video camera in a story titled Private investigator tells Team 10 Republicans watching Filner for years.
The story was especially noteworthy coming from 10News who has been leading the charge to recall Filner. They said this:
"San Diego Republicans have been trying to capture Bob Filner in compromising positions with women for years, according to a Republican and licensed private investigator.
Derrick Roach, secretary of the San Diego County Republican Party, said he has run surveillance on Filner during election cycles.
"I think some people turned a blind eye thinking this was just a partisan political attack," Roach said. "They thought it was a witch hunt and it's not.""
Was this a preemptive move to explain why they had been able to gather "credible" evidence of the Mayor in compromising positions and suggesting that any evidence they had attained was organic and not a set-up?
Certainly an odd admission on their part and possibly strategic.
July 15, 2013
Filner announces he won't resign, saying he doesn't believe he is guilty of sexual harassment and will be vindicated.
July 22, 2013:
The accusers step forward.
(In my opinion They each seem strategically spaced in a line-up to maximize the media exposure. The line-up seems contrived to me.)
Irene McCormack, Filner's former communications director, files an "unsigned" sexual harassment lawsuit. Filner rejects the allegations.
July 23, 2013:
In an KPBS interview, Laura Fink claims that Filner patted her butt 8 years earlier.
July 24, 2013:
Morgan Rose, a psychologist for the San Diego Unified School District, tells KPBS that then-Congressman Filner repeatedly tried to kiss her during a 2009 meeting.
July 25, 2013:
Four more women, including Jerry Sander's chief operating officer in 2005 Veronica Froman step forward. She left the job in June, 2007, in the midst of the Sunroad scandal.
Froman was also senior vice president of General Atomics. Don Bauder reported at that point she was dating Republican mega-donor Linden Blue, Vice Chairman of General Atomics, a big player in building killer Predator drones.
Yes we have 9 accusers but to date only ONE legal claim filed and that claim is unsigned by the accuser. The other claims for the most part are either way passed the statute of limitations or are not work related and thus would be barred from court. This is important to remember.
Here are the screen shots of at least 3 recall Filner domain names and their corresponding registration dates.
This case begs further investigation to find out who was planning for a recall from day one and why.
Please come join the fight to demand due process for Mayor Filner and for everyone.
The Filner bashing in the MSM has been deafening, but to people who have been paying attention we have seen that this recall effort was in the works long before any allegations of sexual misconduct emerged.
November 6, 2012:
Filner is the first Democrat elected in 20 years as mayor of San Diego.
December 3, 2012:
Filner takes office.
January 1, 2013:
A Facebook site was created called "San Diego deserves better" laying the groundwork for a recall effort. "Holding San Diego Mayor Bob Filner accountable for his history of physical confrontation, outbursts, bullying tactics and overall inability to govern and represent San Diego in a manner fitting America's Finest City."
The corresponding website www.sandiegodeservesbetter.com was also created months earlier.
It was created in Scottsdale Arizona 2011-05-22 19:51:15 by Domains by Proxy which is a way for web owners to keep the domains owners personal information safe from the public eye.
January 7, 2013:
The domain name recallfilner.com was registered by the same company 2013-01-07 13:13:42 to keep the owners information private---so was the domain name recallbobfilner.com and recallmayorfilner.com .
April 22, 2013
VOSD which receives a large amount of funding from Plaza De Panama backer Irwin Jacobs published an article on the City's recall process. Zachary Warma writes The Rocky Road to Recall addressing the challenges and the hurdles of the recall process.
May 6, 2013
VOSD publishes an article showing Jan Goldmith scrambling to figure out how to fix San Diego's recall rules to make ousting Filner easier. Zachary Warma writes City’s Recall Provision Likely Unconstitutional.
June 3, 2013
This is the date that citizens by statute, must wait before they launch a recall effort.
June 21, 2013
The Recall Bob Filner Facebook page is launched. (Still no sexual allegations of misconduct.)
July 10, 2013
Donna Frey, Cory Briggs and Marco Gonzalez call a press conference to demand Filner resign over allegations of sexual misconduct.
July 11, 2013
10News does a story on how the Republicans have been following Filner with a Private Investigator and a video camera in a story titled Private investigator tells Team 10 Republicans watching Filner for years.
The story was especially noteworthy coming from 10News who has been leading the charge to recall Filner. They said this:
"San Diego Republicans have been trying to capture Bob Filner in compromising positions with women for years, according to a Republican and licensed private investigator.
Derrick Roach, secretary of the San Diego County Republican Party, said he has run surveillance on Filner during election cycles.
"I think some people turned a blind eye thinking this was just a partisan political attack," Roach said. "They thought it was a witch hunt and it's not.""
Was this a preemptive move to explain why they had been able to gather "credible" evidence of the Mayor in compromising positions and suggesting that any evidence they had attained was organic and not a set-up?
Certainly an odd admission on their part and possibly strategic.
July 15, 2013
Filner announces he won't resign, saying he doesn't believe he is guilty of sexual harassment and will be vindicated.
July 22, 2013:
The accusers step forward.
(In my opinion They each seem strategically spaced in a line-up to maximize the media exposure. The line-up seems contrived to me.)
Irene McCormack, Filner's former communications director, files an "unsigned" sexual harassment lawsuit. Filner rejects the allegations.
July 23, 2013:
In an KPBS interview, Laura Fink claims that Filner patted her butt 8 years earlier.
July 24, 2013:
Morgan Rose, a psychologist for the San Diego Unified School District, tells KPBS that then-Congressman Filner repeatedly tried to kiss her during a 2009 meeting.
July 25, 2013:
Four more women, including Jerry Sander's chief operating officer in 2005 Veronica Froman step forward. She left the job in June, 2007, in the midst of the Sunroad scandal.
Froman was also senior vice president of General Atomics. Don Bauder reported at that point she was dating Republican mega-donor Linden Blue, Vice Chairman of General Atomics, a big player in building killer Predator drones.
Yes we have 9 accusers but to date only ONE legal claim filed and that claim is unsigned by the accuser. The other claims for the most part are either way passed the statute of limitations or are not work related and thus would be barred from court. This is important to remember.
Here are the screen shots of at least 3 recall Filner domain names and their corresponding registration dates.
This case begs further investigation to find out who was planning for a recall from day one and why.
Please come join the fight to demand due process for Mayor Filner and for everyone.
Sandiegodeservesbetter.com is run by the County Republican Party. They used to say that on the page but they took it down. You can probably get an old version at archive.org on the wayback machine.
I welcome this info that supports belief there is no real sexual harassment and no actual harm, though I would have believed just that without any proof. Though it's welcome, it sure is unsettling to actually see how intentional and deliberate these actions and connections personally are that can only be viewed as purposefully removing, destroying and doing whatever it takes to grab the reins from Bob Filner immediately which shows desperation too, to get back to that pot-of-gold that is drifting away from them. I mean Jerry Sanders looked uptight and pinched and nervous when he was interviewed last night I think. I guess they thought the takeover would have been quicker or a simple request to resign and resignation. Do any of these desperados have criminal records?
Great investigation and timeline. Good work.
How many urban land use "experts" are involved in the recall effort? They just seem to come out of the wordwork like maggots.
Seems that a dossier was kept on the mayor in case he was elected. That would give developers a second bite of the apple. Reminds on of the recall of Gray Davis to let Enron off the hook for 10 billion in the energy scam.
I predict that this voter nullification in San Diego is just as well orchestrated by the same forces.
Excellent work on your part, history. On theirs too, but for less honorable ends.
San Diego is using Machievelian means to achieve the ends of developers. It is cynical of Republicans to use women's rights as a foil to recall Filner.
The U-T carries stories quoting former District Attorney Paul Finger and former law partner Brad Hallen on Jan Goldsmith's strategy of appearing to steer a course that avoids conflicts of interest in his role as City Attorney, and of Jan Goldsmith''s tenacity, etc.
This is all very nice, however the complexity of the issues creates many conflicts of interest for Mr. Goldsmith. Who is Mr. Goldsmith's client?
Given the background provided above, that question will place Goldsmith in an ethical Filner headlock faster than it will bring Filner down, in my opinion.
Goldsmith has experience but so does Filner.
Interesting. On 7/6/13, I waited in line to speak with Bob Filner (at his once-a-month forum to speak directly with him) for a couple hours. NEXT to me in line was Michael Pallamary, Land Use Consultant, and current recall head fellow. We visited on and off about his reason for being there (representing LA Developer Kilroy Realty's 23 acre Carmel Valley project) to voice his chagrin/disappointment with Filner's position. Per article in today's UT, "Earlier this year, Filner intervened at a community planning meeting to oppose a 23-acre project in Carmel Valley, saying the 2.1 million-sqare-foot, mixed use project was far bigger that what the neighborhood wanted. Los Angeles developer Kilroy Realty subsequently downsized the One Paseo complex by one-third and is awaiting approval for City Hall." The above item, the UT ownership (Papa Manchester, John Lynch) and other 'connections' are very, very much in play......what media in SD will have the courage to connect the dots?
Steve, wow! thank you for sharing that! That is good to know!!! i will look into this further!
Again, pointing out that people hate (and have always hated) a liberal kind of misses the point.
I am not clear what is so suspicious about efforts to recall Filner that predate the allegations.
The desire to unseat a liberal is not new (and I am a liberal who voted for Filner).
Also, these rumors of inappropriate behavior have been swirling about for several years.
They're not new either (as anyone who has been drunk w/ connected Democrats knows).
Personal problems (eg: being sleazy) are not a reason to unseat an elected official (eg: Clinton).
However, sexual physical aggression and harassment are perfectly good reasons (even if they do not rise to the level of criminality) to ask someone to step down.
This may be a conspiracy of developers but the biggest conspirator is Bob himself.
Its unfortunate that the only person to really stand up to developers is such a weak link.