Mr. Murphy

He Who Lives By the Poll, Dies By the Poll

By Mr. Murphy | 07/19/08

I was cleaning out my emails today, a task I have never tried to do before, when I stumbled upon an old email from a supporter of Marti Emerald for City Council campaign touting a poll that showed Emerald running up the scoreboard on Republican April Boling. View the poll here. If you are a member of the political community here in San Diego, you probably remember when you got a similar email, and that a large portion of the... read more »

Wait One Second...

By Mr. Murphy | 07/16/08

As I was writing the last column it came back to my mind that in his bid for City Attorney Councilman Brian Maienschein ran as the 'get tough' candidate on illegal immigration, after doing nothing to actually fight illegal immigration during his many years as an elected official. Then it struck me that the San Diego City Council, on which Maienschein sits for a while longer, unanimously approved "La Raza" Day. La Raza's view on illegal... read more »

GOP Candidate Endorsements

By Mr. Murphy | 07/16/08

I think it is a sign of future promise when a GOP candidate, who is defeated by a GOP candidate in a primary, endorses the winner and goes to work helping him. Many candidates lose their first time out, so really sometimes you are just looking at the person's behavior to see what they would be like if in fact elected. On Monday at the Republican Party meeting Marshall Merrifield publicly endorsed Phil Thalheimer for San Diego City Council... read more »

Emerald on the Road

By Mr. Murphy | 07/07/08

After Marti Emerald, 7th San Diego City Council Democrat candidate, blew the primary with an almost mythic inability to shut her mouth they couldn't really fire her so consultant Larry Remer got to stand up and be sacrificed. So that is all fine and well, but where does Emerald turn next for a consultant who will put up with her behavior? I got an email this morning that said she and her manager were on their way to Sacramento today to meet with... read more »

BRASS TACKS

By Mr. Murphy | 07/01/08

I read our liberal friend "Hiram Johnson" and his comment about the DCCC spending some money against Congressman Brian Bilbray. Here are the actual numbers, as given to me by a reliable GOP consultant: $2,100 over a week on KOGO. What my source says is this is one advertisement give or take a day.   My point to this is maybe the Democrats have a limitless amount of money, but no amount of money is going to buy them a seat as heavily... read more »

Scott Peters: Labor's Tarnished Golden Boy

By Mr. Murphy | 06/12/08

From Today's Union Tribune article on campaign finance:   "Council President Scott Peters said a higher limit, which would take effect in 2009, would counter the candidacies of the independently wealthy and of others who benefit from unlimited special interest or political party contributions. In particular, Peters said, an increase would combat the influence of the county Republican party, which spent more than $900,000 on last week's... read more »

San Diego City Attorney Race: A Re-Cap

By Mr. Murphy | 06/11/08

I will be the first to say that I was surprised with the results of the San Diego City Attorney race.   Jan Goldsmith 32.29% RUNOFF Mike Aguirre 28.89% RUNOFF Scott Peters 20.43% Brian Maienschein 12.41% Amy Lepine 5.97%   There is so much to discuss here, I almost don't know where to start.   * Goldsmith coming in first surprised me. This was a huge win for the local Republican Party and DA Dumanis. Thinking about the election... read more »

Strange Post by "Progressives"

By Mr. Murphy | 05/28/08

I was looking through my email this morning and I got a strange column from the progressive blog. In short, it's casting blame for losses not yet incurred... defending labor and the Democratic Party and blaming "campaigns" for losses.     Tuesday, May 27, 2008 PSA: Campaigns Because we are a week away from the Primary and campaigns are preparing their who's or what will get blamed or take credit for their victory or... read more »

Merrifield and Thalheimer on Hedgecock, NOW

By Mr. Murphy | 05/27/08

San Diego's 1rst District City Council candidates Marshall Merrifield and Phil Thalheimer, both Republicans, are on the Hedgecock Show right now. KOGO AM 600. read more »

Progressive Blog - RIP?

By Mr. Murphy | 05/22/08

If San Diego's "progressive blog" were a medical patient, the doctors would be calling the priest in for last rites. The daily news posting stopped a week ago. The "blogging" is down to about one a week. The comments are anemic. The patient is in a coma, the pulse is slowing, and the breathing is shallow. Brain waves were never particularly active, so that is less of a problem.   Now I'm no progressive, whatever that means, but I think... read more »