Brace for Silly Season

It’s the third week of September during a big election year, which means that summer has ended and Silly Season has begun.

Silly Season has several signs. There’s the just plain weird stuff. Like this week we reported that the Lincoln Club had endorsed San Diego City Council candidate Martha Abraham. Because the Lincoln Club’s spokesperson had said they did.

But her campaign was furious and insisted nothing of the sort had happened. Then the Lincoln Club acknowledged the spokesperson had gotten it wrong when he told us the club had endorsed Abraham. Classic sign of Silly Season.

But there is no bigger sign of Silly Season than the spread of Extreme Umbrage Taking, or EUT.

What is EUT? (Pronounced “yoot”) This is when you see someone make the case that something their opponent or a journalist or someone has said has painfully, irreparably and devastatingly injured them. Modern campaigning is, in part, an umbrage contest. Only the best umbrage takers can make it through.

I was the subject of EUT this week when the group San Diego United Communities took Extreme Umbrage about something … we didn’t say. An Instagram account led by a local housing and walkable neighborhoods enthusiast tried to describe the group. It listed various descriptions and then used a picture of our reporter Jakob McWhinney and a quote supposedly from Jakob calling United Communities “The NIMBY Avengers.”

When members of the group asked me about it, I assumed it was something Jakob did say as a joke on the podcast or somewhere. I thought it was silly. The Avengers are superheroes, after all. But they don’t like to be called NIMBYs. They then made this and it spread virally on Facebook and Nextdoor.

We searched our archives and podcast transcripts and confirmed that none of us had ever called them the “NIMBY Avengers” and the guy who made the Instagram post pulled it down. I explained that and apologized for dismissing their initial concerns.

But they deleted my explanation. One guy called me a “pompous ass” and the group thanked him. (I take umbrage!)

So brace yourself, it’s coming: It could be a text message reading something like this: “Hi you may have heard that (Candidate A) was attacked and irreparably slandered by (Org A or Candidate B or Faceless Phenomenon C) and we need you to help fight back. Send $50 to (link).” Or a mailer that says “(The unions, or gun lobby or billionaires or ai tech oligarchs or dog enthusiasts) have lied about my record. You can see the truth at (candidate fact check site funded by independent expenditure).”

Here’s More of What’s Coming

District 8 mailboxes are about to fill up: The San Diego City Council races are going to be fierce. In District 8, we have probably the biggest clash coming. The Labor Council and other allies of Antonio Martinez are not going to leave anything to chance. They don’t want to lose this seat again. The Laborers, Municipal Employees Association and the coalition of interests Assemblymember David Alvarez and incumbent City Councilmember Vivian Moreno have mobilized to win this seat over and over are going to be there for Gerardo Ramirez.

This is an open seat and could go either way and it is going to get mean.

District 4: Mariana Martinez Barba’s story on the race for this City Council seat got a ton of response from both sides. There’s no question incumbent Henry Foster is in trouble. Incumbency has advantages but Martha Abraham has been gathering diverse support. She has a warm, rapidly expanding presence online and whether the Lincoln Club supports her or not, she’s gaining traction. The firefighters deciding last week to withdraw their support of Foster was a big step. Watch for other shoes to drop.

San Marcos, center of the world: Last week, we had NBC San Diego’s Joey Safchik on the podcast and she pointed out that there is one place in San Diego where all local and national politics converge: San Marcos. Residents there will have pivotal votes on the future of Congress, the county of San Diego and the only tense state Senate fight around. We put a call out for mailers already flying there. Here’s a sample.

Major political insight alert: This is probably not the last reference to gas prices coming.

Notes

Airbnb’s big donation: In November last year, we reported that Airbnb had poll-tested and considered running a campaign to repeal the city’s trash fee. The company’s representatives were openly communicating that it could be a friend or foe as the city, at that time, was contemplating a new tax on vacation rentals. And it was an open secret that the company was willing to help the city pass a sales tax increase if this whole vacation rental thing went away.

Justin Wesson, policy manager, Airbnb told me this at the time:

“Airbnb supports meaningful solutions that help generate and protect local revenue across the state, but a hefty tax that significantly raises costs for residents who occasionally share their home to make extra money is not the right approach. We remain committed to working with local leaders on solutions that would actually help bolster affordability in the city.” 

One of the group’s that supported Airbnb’s opposition to the vacation rental tax was the Laborer’s union, LiUNA Local 89. The Laborers are working on a new sales tax measure for 2028 that would be focused on infrastructure.

A reader this week pointed out that, in April, Airbnb put $500,000 into a committee called San Diego Public Safety and Infrastructure Repair Measure.

Politifest is going to be good: You know who Paul Mitchell is. He’s vice president of Political Data at Political Data Inc. (PDI)  and owner of Redistricting Partners. He’s flying in to present all he knows about San Diego voters. If this isn’t enough to draw dozens of you then who really are you anyway?

Lots more. Get your tickets here.

If you have any feedback or ideas for the Politics Report, send them to [email protected] or [email protected].

The post Brace for Silly Season appeared first on Voice of San Diego.