By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Call it Jewish pride, but if I had my druthers, I’d like to see the San Diego mayor’s race come down to a race between two members of our community: District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, a Republican, and Congressman Bob Filner, a Democrat.
Now, it’s not that I have anything against any of the other prospective candidates, be they members of the City Council or the state Legislature, who have been lining up for the race. However, in my opinion, both Dumanis and Filner have something that most of the other candidates lack: the perspectives borne of long experience in public office.
Dumanis has been a district attorney for several terms now, and prior to that she was a judge. As district attorney, she has run a fairly large department and as a judge, she became used to weighing evidence before making a decision. So, she would bring both experience and temperament to the office of mayor.
I like the fact as well that Dumanis is one of several members of the LGBT community seeking the city’s highest office. Having been a member of a class of people who have been the subject of discrimination and prejudice, Dumanis will have empathy for others who are unfairly victimized. Yet, as she has shown as a prosecutor, she makes decisions based on merit, not on sentiment.
Filner is another “veteran officeholder”—in more ways than one. Once a history professor and director of San Diego State University’s Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies, he went on to be elected as a member of the San Diego City School Board, and later was elected to the San Diego City Council. From there, he went on to Congress, gaining so much seniority and seasoning in the job that he became chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, until he lost the position this year with the Republican takeover of the House. Now he is the “Ranking Member” of the opposition on that panel.
The congressman is a man of passion. As a young man, he was a Freedom Rider, joining the select group of Black and White college students who rode together in violation of segregation laws through the South, and got themselves thrown into Mississippi State Prison for their trouble. Filner has never lost that commitment to civil rights, that willingness to put his own body and reputation on the line. Getting arrested for a social cause has been a mark of honor for Filner – whether it be for civil rights, or in the case of Filipino veterans in his district, for equal treatment under the law.
Like many in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, Filner was no fan of the Vietnam War. He was more comfortable back then as a protestor. Yet, as a congressman he became one of the most determined advocates for veterans of that conflict, demanding that the country do its best to take care of them and other “wounded warriors.”
Filner is a liberal Democrat; Dumanis is a moderate Republican. Both are scrappy, and I doubt that they’d campaign against each other using the rules of the Marquis de Queensbury. However, unlike races in which the candidates are philosophical “me too’s,” Dumanis and Filner would have legitimate philosophical difference to put before the voters. There’d be plenty for them to debate in a mayor’s race.
To their credit, both have learned lessons of leadership over the years and are unlikely to make the mistakes that may derail their less experienced, less polished rivals.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com