2020 City Attorney: Hold Your Nose and Vote for the Lesser Evil?
Second in a series on City of San Diego political contests on the November, 2020 ballot.
Already covered: San Diego Mayoral, State Ballot propositions.
This may be the toughest campaign to evaluate for the upcoming general election.
In a nutshell, the City Attorney’s office has a great deal of influence in how San Diego is run. Incumbent Mara Elliott and challenger Cory Briggs are both Democrats with centrist tendencies.
There is a noticeable lack of enthusiasm among political activists for either candidate. I did an informal email survey last week; most of the replies I received involved some variation of holding one's nose while voting for lesser evil.
Rather than bury readers with minutiae of each candidates’ wins and loses, I’ll try to paint a picture with broad brush strokes. (There will be a sampling of links at the end for those seeking details.)
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Elliott is the first woman, and first Latina, to serve as City Attorney for San Diego, and her reelection should have been a cake walk.
Instead, she’s tainted with insinuations about the competency of her office, a checkered relationship with the media/public access advocates, and guilty by association with the biggest real estate scandal in San Diego in recent years.
Long-time supporters are quietly backing away; the Union-Tribune has called out her performance, and eight of the nine city council members boycotted a recent meeting with Elliott when she saw fit to channel Atty General Bill Barr concerning documents.
Some backroom dealing recently killed a ballot measure backed by seven members of the City Council that would have eviscerated the City Attorney’s Office, allowing it to continue prosecuting misdemeanors but ending its role in handling litigation and advising city officials on legal issues. That such a charter amendment was considered a viable option is a huge warning flag about confidence in Elliott’s performance.
Elliott’s big advantage going into her initial election for City Attorney in 2016 was her institutional experience, which allowed her to create an effective and nationally-recognized Gun Violence Restraining Order program.
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Challenger Cory Briggs, who’s made competency and politicization of this office a centerpiece of his campaign, has his own set of issues.
In his role as an advocate against the (mostly) dubious schemes hatched by the financiers of the city's traditional political establishment, he’s been attacked for getting his fees paid by lawsuit losers (as he should), cast as a loose cannon, and perceived as a self-dealer more than a team player.
Briggs has done San Diego a big favor by continuing to challenge what passes for conventional wisdom. Being the squeaky wheel when it came to the various schemes to expand the convention center will end up being a plus-plus; the pandemic has changed the way business gatherings will happen in the future and the city’s hoteliers were denied access to the public treasury.
There are, I think, legitimate concerns about just how Cory Briggs would function as the leader of our city’s legal beagles, just not the ones most commonly cited. His managerial experience should be the issue; and there’s no way of knowing how he’d respond to the challenges of directing nearly 400 employees and overseeing a $60 million budget.
Having said all that, Briggs is smart and has shown the kind of tenacity desirable for a position overseeing thousands of moving pieces. And he is clearly outside the unspoken axis of policing and prosecutors. Lots of bad stuff happens to the nobodies in this city as a result of the back and forth of the favors needed to maintain those relationships.
As is the case with mayoral candidate Barbara Bry, I have issues with candidates saying they “want to take the politics out” of the position they are seeking, namely, that they are either naïve, or disingenuous. And Cory may be many things, but naïve is not one of them.
The campaign has gotten rougher lately, with Briggs and his allies relentlessly going after Elliott, who’s unforced errors have made that task easy. The incumbent’s prickliness makes it harder to believe she’s not hiding something.
I can’t abide with some of Brigg’s choices for friends and enemies. The Save Our Neighborhoods crowd might not be all bad, but its historically based racist stank keeps me away. At some point in the future, some of his cringeworthy tweets may haunt him, should he have to navigate the workflow of the City Attorney’s office.
And if you’re gonna call yourself a Democrat, don’t waste your time shitting on unions or the local party*, who’ve got enough to deal with already. His scorched earth campaign, chock full of hyperbole and straw men led me to vow “no way” on Briggs as a candidate in July, but Elliott’s continuing malfeasance has made me reconsider.
*(I am not suggesting unions/party are above criticism. However, given the fundamental threat faced by democracy in the coming months, they are the institutions capable of sustaining the sort of massive protests potentially required to defend the legitimacy of the electoral process. The severity of critiques need to be viewed in that context.)
While incumbents rarely lose elections in San Diego, two council incumbents were defeated last fall and incumbent City Attorney Mike Aguirre (a “brilliant doctor with a terrible bedside manner”) lost his re-election bid to Jan Goldsmith in 2008.
San Diego needs the best legal advice it can get in the City Attorney’s office. My suggestion would be to study each candidate’s website and go with your gut.
At this point you can count me as Lean Briggs, while hoping we get a good enough mayor and city council to keep him focused on what matters.
About the Candidates
Mara Eliott, Incumbent
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Endorsements
Bio: First woman, and the first Latina, elected to her position; named California Lawyers Association 2020 Public Lawyer of the Year; past president of the City Attorneys Association of San Diego County and currently serves as board president of the San Diego Law Library,
Education: UC Santa Barbara and McGeorge School of Law.
Relevant experience: Served as legal counsel to public schools, the transit district, and the County of San Diego and was a Chief Deputy City Attorney
A Significant Accomplishment: A 4-year academic study credits San Diego for obtaining nearly 40% of California’s Gun Violence Restraining Orders since 2016. This is huge, and an example of smart lawyering taking on a difficult problem.
Politics in a nutshell:Liberal/Feminist
Issues highlighted on website: Preventing Gun Violence, Fighting for Victims of Abuse,
Holding Big Corporations Accountable, Smart Justice, Protecting The Environment, Protecting Taxpayers
$$$$
Total small donors reported via Candidate Controlled committee: $136,335.00 - (Will benefit from Democratic Party endorsement)
Largest contributors to Non-Candidate Controlled committees: None
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Cory Briggs
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Endorsements
Bio: Began practicing law in 1995 with Mundell, Odlum & Haws in San Bernardino, California, where he primarily litigated commercial and employment-related disputes; spent time in Washington, D.C., adding environmental law and regulatory compliance to his practice from 1998-2002; returned to southern California in June 2002, where he founded Briggs Law Corporation.
Education: Chaffey Community College (A.S. degree in accounting), UC Riverside (B.A, major in philosophy), California Western School of Law, (Juris Doctor); continued education at Claremont Graduate School (M.A. in Philosophy).
Relevant experience: Nearly two decades acting as an advocate for taxpayers against special interests.
A Significant Accomplishment: Gained local prominence primarily by suing the city frequently over transparency and other issues; biggest victory came in 2014 when a state Appeals Court ruled the city’s funding plan to expand the waterfront convention center was illegal.
Politics in a nutshell: Liberal/Environmentalist
Issues highlighted on website: Protecting Voters, Neighborhoods, Open Government, Taxpayers, the Environment, Children
$$$$
Total small donors reported via Candidate Controlled committee: $176,797.00 - Cory Briggs has loaned the campaign $100,000.
Largest contributors to Non-Candidate Controlled committee: None
A sampling of links concerning Cory Briggs
Open Letter to San Diego County Democratic Party Executive Board
Cory Briggs’ track record overshadows his San Diego city attorney bid
Briggs Proposes Plan to Shut City Attorney’s Office, Save Taxpayers $15M
City Attorney candidate Cory Briggs on the future of policing in San Diego
State to pay $1 million for Briggs’ legal fees in Coastal Commission lawsuit
Attorney Briggs would have to stop suing San Diego if elected mayor
A sampling of links concerning Mara Elliott
City Atty Opens and Quickly Closes Criminal Investigation Regarding Link
San Diego credited with growth in statewide use of restraining orders to curb gun violence
Local Commissioner Resigns b/c of Failure to Enforce Brown Act
City Atty Elliott is Covering Up Problems with 101 Ash Street
City Councilmembers Call For Outside Legal Help On Smart Street Lights
Up next, City Council Races. If everything goes as expected, I’ll get Districts 1 & 3 done this week, 5,7, & 9 next week.
Voter Guide – You’ve Voted for President, what’s next?
I’ll be writing about many ballot measures and candidates between now and the end of September. That work will be condensed into an handy-dandy voter guide just in time for your mail-in ballots to arrive. I’m the guy who coordinated San Diego Free Press’s Voter Guides over the past decade, so this won’t be my first effort. Stay tuned.
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