Did the other Republican candidate(s) for the seat show up? Is there a Democrat in the race?

How are you going to spin that J Hamilton Madison?

Truth be told...city hall needs a fiscal reformer that happens to be gay, more than it needs a union liberal with a R next to her name.

That is something that Lincoln Club members, donors, and Party central committee members will all agree on. Keep talking, we'll see what happens.

3 people in race: Lee, Demaio, and a third guy, a lawyer. All Republicans.

I'll take this one since I got here before J. Hamilton Madison. For elephants, some of you seem to have forgotten pretty quickly what the Lincoln Club did to Mitz Lee, on the behalf of Miyo Reff, only 4 years ago.

Why would Mitz waste her time by actively seeking an endorsement from an organization that obviously isn't going to give her a chance (see DeMaio's host committee list for further evidence). Furthermore, even if she did have a chance at getting the Lincoln Club endorsement (which she doesn't, DeMaio's endorsement is a foregone conclusion), after 2004 she'd have to swallow a ton of pride to walk into a Lincoln Club meeting to ask for it.

Jerry Sander's didn't actively seek the party endorsement in 2005. Why? Because he didn't want to bother with a futile effort. Instead, he beat the party in the primary and waited for the Party to pathetically come crawling back to him. The result: 2 months after the Francis endorsement and continuing today, Nehring was championing Sanders as the Republican savior of San Diego.

I dont know anything about the past Lincoln Club and Mitz Lee, but Jerry Sanders actually did seek the Party endorsement in the primary of 2005... he applied, went to the executive council (or whatever its called) and fought for the endorsement at the committee itself.

That being said, Francis won the endorsement in a narrow vote (less than a point if I remember), then lost the primary. THEN the party went crawling to Sanders! :)

I think its kind of funny how Murphy started out as a strong GOP candidate then turned out to be a slave to labor and the Democrats, while Sanders started out well behind in the GOP game and turned out to be one of the city's most Republican Mayors!

Morton got OWNED by Actually...

If I remember correctly, Francis got the endorsement by 1 vote (maybe 2 to get the needed 2/3rds). The opposition was a coalition of Sanders, Myke, and people that just didn’t want an endorsement when “there are many good Republicans in the race”.

That being said, Sanders didn’t pout about it for the next 4 years. He still reached out and therefore the Party reached out to him. The Party is now on great terms with him, which is exactly why he got a very early endorsement last month. The relationship is mutually beneficial.

I didn’t even know about Mitz Lee situation four years ago. Most of the people in the meeting yesterday probably were not even at the endorsement meeting 4 years ago (the LC has grown a ton in the last four years). So if that is how she is going to be than that’s fine. There is obviously a big contrast between her attitude and Mayor Sanders.

Sanders ended up being a legitimate conservative reformer, and not the moderate that Francis supporters thought he was.

Mitz Lee is playing this out as exactly how the “establishment” folks think she is: a Rhino-Republican that is a union sympathizer. If she isn’t, she hasn’t said or done a damn thing to show us otherwise. And not showing up yesterday certainly doesn’t help her case.

Hey Truth Syrup, did I say I was supporting Lee? No, I said as an overt RINO she was preferable to an ersatz conservative like Demaio. Actually, this Ilko guy could be the better candidate. He has actually lived in the community unlike Carl and he has leadership credentials and a spine unlike Mitz. I think RINO-cop's comments yesterday about Ilko being some type of police union Manchurian Candidate sounds a little paranoid. We'll have to see what he's made of, but for me, Lee is now definitely out and Demaio still doesn't pass muster.

I was at the LC meeting as well yesterday and if you think that attorney guy is a better candidate, you better hear him speak. ZERO personality, ZERO energy. His points were weak and he had no enthusiasm. DeMaio was personable, knew what he was talking about, stayed on point and has a lot to offer the council. Mitz is OUT, and that attorney should stick to his day job.

Newer Lincoln Member, your comments are unfounded and are a very moot point. DeMaio is by far the best candidate for several resasons not least of which he has the ability and know how to acutaly reform city hall. His activism in trying to reform city hall over the years has been recognized by everyone involved. He has offered solutions time and time again while it is still early in the race Lee and Ilko have not taken the time to even explain solutions that they have. Carl is and will be backed by all of the key players in not only the Lincoln Club but in the rest of the Business community because he understands his base and wants to work to develop common sense solutions. Lee and Ilko have no real answers to the tough questions and voters and community leaders would be silly to believe that either of those two candidates can and will get anything done if elected to District 5.

Actually...as I remember 2005, every Rep. candidate went to the executive session, but only two bothered with whip counts and appeared/fought at the Committee's endorsement session (Shelby and Francis). Yes, there were a few Sanders supporters in the room who eventually voted with the Shelby people to try and prevent the Francis endorsement, but as I recall, by the time of the committee's endorsement meeting, the Sanders campaign was nowhere to be found. Furthermore, in the final 5 of six votes that night, all of the votes were for either Shelby or Francis. I also recall that the next time Sanders spoke to the committee, it was to accept their endorsement...which he did humby and graciously...leading to improved relations with the party.

That being said, yes Sanders is the best mayor SD has had in a long time, but the lessons here are that you don't need the established Republican infrastructure to win, moderates don't always turn out bad, the Republican establishment isn't always right about who's who in a race, and most importantly, everyone's your friend if you win. If the winner of this race turns out to be either Ilko or Mitz, they'll be heralded.

As for Mitz, who knows exactly what went through her head when she decided not to show up to the Lincoln Club, but I'm sure she was aware of the situation as I previously described: regardless of the composition of this new Lincoln Club, her not getting the endorsement is a foregone conclusion regardless of whether or not she appeared at a meeting. Why would she kiss the LC's ass when she knows they're going to burn her the same as they did before? Is there anyone on this board who doesn't think that an LC endorsement of DeMaio is a foregone conclusion?

The endorsement of Francis was actually a long and bitter fight, and I was there. I can't say Francis WON it as much as the coalition against him LOST it.

My view:

The Francis folks were pretty well organized with whips and all. But they didn't walk into the room with enough votes. They kept us there till all hours with debate and votes (all of which the Francis folks lost) until the folks who were running the 'coalition' against them thought it was over and left to go have a beer. Then the Francis folks brought the vote back up and won!

I think 'GOP Seatholder' remembers most of the endorsement night right, but the most important part wrong.

At some god-aweful hour the Francis people forced a 'last vote' and lost by like 1/10th of a point or something. Then the people who were on the anti-Francis side mostly left to go celebrate.

But one of the anti-Francis people, Karen Wynott, who was sitting a couple seats from me, made a procedural motion that re-opened the question!!!!! The Francis people, who were loitering around in the back of the room RAN back into the crowd, rounded up votes, and called the question and won.

The humor of the situation was that the anti-Francis people grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory.

I was there.

It was boring.

Half the crowd was either drunk or red faced with anger or both.

The best part of the night was Barry Jantz yelling at Duane Dichara for threatening voters.

MITZ LEE left the city council race, and instead MITZ LEE went for San Diego School Board again. Does anyone know exactly why MITZ LEE went school board instead of city council?

Uhhhh....because she likely thought she was gonna get her clock cleaned, as a start. Funny, this post was over a year ago and people are still commenting?

Even funnier, this is the first time I've seen the comment just prior to last one. What, me yell at Duane? In public? And, I'm still alive, with no broken legs? Can't possible be true.

mitz lee is gonna get her clock cleaned? I gotta see this! So what's going to be mitz lee's fate on the school board then, and what is your opinion of all that? personally, i think i've seen enough of mitz lee. she's not bad, but she sure isn't good.

and that Duane guy sounds big.

I was referring to her running for city council.

I would love to see her get her clock cleaned (metaphorically, of course). She's kind of nice, though. That should get her public office, right? Riiiight...