Other items in today’s column include:
*Jewish community coronavirus updates
*Jewish business news
*Political bytes
Editor’s Note: In the past, we have profiled such Jewish candidates as Sara Jacobs (53rd CD); Barbara Bry (San Diego mayoral race), and, in order to integrate the series into the daily “Our Shtetl San Diego County” column, have broken our story about Joe Leventhal into three parts, this being the third. Here are links to Part I and Part II.
SAN DIEGO — San Diego City Council candidate Joe Leventhal served on the City of San Diego’s Ethics Commission for only a year before resigning to run for office, but he’s proud that he has left behind what he says colleagues on the commission refer informally to as the “Leventhal Amendment.”
Under state law, campaign disclosure laws must be as strict or stricter than those of the California state government, Leventhal said. Initially, one of the state’s regulations for independent political committees that support a candidate was that the committee had to disclose on its signs the names of the two top donors who contributed more than $50,000. While Leventhal was serving on the commission from 2018 to 2019, the state law increased the number to three donors.
“I said it could be tough in the heat of a campaign to place who the top three are on a sign,” Leventhal recalled in an interview. “So I suggested that campaigns have websites where people could find all the donors. That increased transparency. They called it the “Leventhal Amendment.’ I’m proud of that, when I was only on there for a year.”
Why did Leventhal, an attorney with his own firm specializing in business law, decide to run in the 5th City Council District, where incumbent Mark Kersey, a former Republican turned independent, is serving his final second term? “I became increasingly frustrated by what I considered a lack of progress for the city,” Leventhal responded. “The homeless crisis that turned into a hepatitis crisis was, I think, embarrassing for the city. When I have people visit, and they stay downtown or in the East Village, everyone comments about our homeless problem; that is a big one for me.”
Another issue of concern: “Roads drive me crazy; going to the airport, Harbor Drive is one of the worst roads in the city. I really think that too many people are playing politics in this city and not focusing on getting things done. You see a lot of people using the City Council as a stepping stone to other offices.” There are four of the nine members of the San Diego City Council currently running for higher office. In the primary election, Georgette Gomez ran for Congress in the 53rd District; Barbara Bry and Scott Sherman both ran for mayor; and Chris Ward ran for the 78th Assembly District seat being given up by Todd Gloria, who also is running for mayor.
“I think we need people who just want to be public servants and get things done for the people,” Leventhal said.
Does that mean, if elected, he wouldn’t run for public office. Was he taking the equivalent pledge of former Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman, who when asked to run for President, famously replied “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected”?
“I have no plans to,” Leventhal replied. “I tell people what I am going to do is win one term and get something done. If I don’t get something done, I’ll be glad to let someone else try it. But if I do, I want a second term.”
Besides homelessness and roads, Leventhal said he is very concerned about public safety in San Diego. “We are the safest large city in the United States, and that doesn’t happen by accident,” he commented. “We have to make sure that we continue to support the police. My district also has a huge fire risk. My wife and I have been evacuated twice in the last 15 years and there are issues like evacuation routes on Pomerado Road.”
District 5 roughly runs along the Interstate 15 stretching north from Scripps Ranch to Rancho Bernardo and San Pasqual.
Having experienced the 9-11 attack on the Pentagon, when he served in Washington D.C. as a congressional staffer, and seeing the “chaos frankly of a city that wasn’t prepared,” Leventhal said “we need to make sure that public safety is a priority.”
Former Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman was one of Leventhal’s earliest endorsers, their paths having crossed when they served together on a Federal Magistrate Selection Panel, which he chaired.
Our discussion turned to the primary election, in which Leventhal came in second to Deputy City Attorney Marni von Wilpert, a Democrat, about whom Leventhal said “I have tremendous respect for her and her accomplishments.” He added that while he is friendly with her–as he was with other primary competitors Isaac Wang and Simon Moghadam — “there are real differences between me and Marni. She is more focused on tax dollars going to mass transit, whereas I am more focused on it going to roads.”
Additionally, he said, Von Wilpert is close to the labor union movement, which he said he views as a “fiscal issue, a lot of union control, and I think the district is more aligned with my view.”
The Registrar of Voters is still counting provisional ballots that were cast in the March 3 election. As of Tuesday, March 17, at 5 p.m., the vote tally stood at Von Wilpert 17,740 ; Leventhal 16,507; Wong 8,478; and Moghadam 1,765. Their combined total of 44,490 votes represented 45.79 percent of the 97,159 registered voters in the district. Leventhal, a Republican, suggested that in the March 3 primary election, Democratic party voters, inspired by the presidential contest among Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Michael Bloomberg (the other major candidates having dropped out), had been more likely to turn out than Republican voters, for whom the renomination of President Donald Trump was a foregone conclusion. So, he said, there may be a higher percentage of Republicans voting in the Nov. 3 runoff, when Trump and the eventual Democratic nominee square off.
While Democrats lead Republicans in the district by a margin of 33,089 voters to 30,542, the balance of power is held by independent voters, of whom there are 28,671. The race between him and von Wilpert may well be decided by how the independent voters go Additionally there are a total of 4,252 registered in other parties including American Independent, Green, Libertarian, and Peace and Freedom. Of these voters, American Independents dominate with 3,053 voters.
Asked what impact he believe the presidential race would have on candidates lower down on the ticket, he responded, “I just don’t think that people want to see our local government as partisan and political as it has been. I think the elected officials who get rewarded and reelected, are those who want to work across the aisle.”
Does he anticipating running with President Trump or against him? “The City Council doesn’t support or oppose a President’s agenda,” he responded. “That’s a matter for Congress. It is a disservice to over-politicize local government.”
For future columns, I anticipate interviewing other members of the Jewish community who are running for office.
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Jewish community coronavirus updates
*Camp Mountain Chai is posting online lesson about such subjects as karate, visual art, Israeli dancing, songs, calligraphy, and baking its Facebook page which may be accessed via this link.
*The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that a hearing scheduled for March 20 for the alleged shooter in last Passover’s attack on Chabad of Poway, John T. Earnest, has been reset for April 29 before U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia. Meanwhile, in state court, where he also is charged, attorneys are to attend an April 17 hearing to determine a timeline for the trial.
*Chabad of Chula Vista has compiled an interactive list of Internet resources to help families get through the stay-at-home days of the coronavirus pandemic.
*Rabbi Moishe Leider of Chabad of University City announced Wednesday that ” in light of the serious health crisis we are experiencing now, The Chabad Center of University City and the Sephardic Minyan will be completely closed starting tomorrow morning. Feel free to come tomorrow anytime and pick up your Tallis, tephillin and any books that you might need. All services, classes and events are hereby cancelled until further notice. Remember that pikuach nefesh (saving lives) is a paramount mitzva in the Torah. We look forward to opening again when we are given the green light better and stronger then ever. ”
*The JSummit planned May 3-5 to bring nationwide leaders of the JCC movement together in Milwaukee has been cancelled. San Diegan Gary E. Jacobs, who is the chairman of the JCC Association of North America, was a signatory to a letter in which it was stated: “In the coming weeks and months, we will explore opportunities to bring elements of the program and some JSummit components to light in other ways. Once the COVID-19 crisis is behind us, we will renew our efforts to provide resources and networking opportunities—with peers, colleagues, and partner organizations—to you through other means.”
*The National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia is now closed to in-person visits. However, it has put on line a tour of its exhibits for virtual visitors to enjoy.
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Jewish business news
Sarah Brightwood Szekely, president, and her mother Deborah Szekely, co-founder of Rancho La Puerta in neighboring Tecate, Mexico, have announced that the health resort will be closed through April 17. They offered these healing words by John O’Donohue: “May the nourishment of the earth be yours; may the clarity of light be yours; may the fluency of the ocean be yours; may the protection of the ancestors be yours. And so may a slow wind work these words of love around you an invisible cloak to mind your life.”
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Political bytes
*Jewish Insider reported that according to a Fox News/AP exit poll Jewish voters in Florida favored Vice President Joe Biden over Senator Bernie Sanders by a margin of 67 to 15 percent. It also reported that Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Los Angeles) has now endorsed Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination.
*San Diego City Councilwoman Barbara Bry continues to build a lead for second place in the race for mayor of San Diego. She now leads her council colleague by 444 votes, with 25,000 ballots from throughout the country remaining to be tallied by the San Diego County Registrar of Voters. Wednesday’s totals in that race were Assemblyman Todd Gloria 143,938; Bry 79,047, and Sherman 78,603.
*San Diego City Council President Georgette Gomez, running for Congress against Sara Jacobs for the seat from which Susan Davis is retiring, has called on Congress during the period of the coronavirus epidemic “to follow California’s lead and pass legislation to halt all foreclosures and evictions for families and small businesses nationwide.” She also shepherded through the San Diego City Council a temporary moratorium on evictions.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com