Other items in today’s column include:
*Gloria, Campbell open segment of West Mission Bay Drive Bridge
*Ocasio-Cortez may challenge Schumer for U.S. Senate in 2022
*Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer Exploring Bid for Governor
[Names in boldface type are those of known members of the Jewish community]
SAN DIEGO — County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, in a demonstration of bipartisanship on Tuesday, Jan. 5, yielded the ceremonial board position of chairman pro tempore to County Supervisor Joel Anderson after she was nominated to the position by Supervisor Nora Vargas, who had also successfully nominated herself for vice chair and County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher as board chair.
Fletcher, Vargas, and Lawson-Remer are Democrats, whereas Anderson and Supervisor Jim Desmond are Republicans. Party affiliations have proven important even though the positions are technically non-partisan. After a unanimous vote, Fletcher took the chair and gave a speech in which he said that previous boards dominated by conservatives had been elected to follow their principles, and now this board, which he characterized as progressive, also was elected by constituents to follow its principles — a mark of changing times and priorities in San Diego County.
Desmond, who like Fletcher is in the middle of his four-year term, complained that in the assignments for board committees and representation on outside agencies, Fletcher seemed to be retaliating against him, rather than working for board unity. Specifically, he complained that he had been stripped of his seats on the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) and the Multiple Species Conservation Program for the North County. Anderson agreed to yield to Desmond his places on LAFCO and the Multiple Species Conservation Program for the North County.
During the trading, Desmond also had asked Lawson-Remer if she would yield her spot on the Multiple Species Conservation Program, but she declined, saying such conservation matters were important to members of her largely coastal district.
As ultimately approved by a unanimous vote of the board, Lawson-Remer’s assignments included:
–Multiple Species Conservation Program
–Affordable Housing Solutions Ad Hoc Committee
–San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Fuel Removal
–Summit on Aging
–Mission Trails Regional Task Force
–Alternate to Desmond on the North San Diego County Transit Development Board
–SANDAG Seat 1, including its executive committee; taxpayer oversight committee, and shoreline preservation working group She was also named as an alternate to Anderson on SANDAG’s regional planning committee; and as an alternate to Desmond on SANDAG”s regional transportation committee.
–San Diego County Water Authority, non-voting member.
On the sheet telling what committee assignments had been suggested for each County Supervisor, Lawson-Remer’s name was listed simply as “Remer.” During the organizing meeting, Lawson-Remer told her colleagues that she uses both surnames, not just one.
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Gloria, Campbell open segment of West Mission Bay Drive Bridge
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and City Council President Dr. Jennifer Campbell on Tuesday ceremonially opened a segment of the West Mission Bay Drive Bridge, which will be opened to traffic on Wednesday, Jan.. 6. The entire project is expected to be completed in 2022.
Gloria described himself as “thrilled to open this new bridge that will ease traffic congestion in a heavily traveled part of our city and ultimately provide bicyclists and pedestrians a safe and environmentally friendly way to cross the San Diego River. This new bridge is going to make life easier for residents in our coastal communities, especially during busy summer months.”
Campbell, in whose 2nd Council District the bridge is located, said” “It’s an exciting day in District 2. The opening of the new West Mission Bay Drive Bridge is a big step in reducing traffic, increasing safety and creating better options for the residents in our beach communities to move round.”
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Ocasio-Cortez may challenge Schumer for U.S. Senate in 2022
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) reportedly has declined to rule out a primary election challenge in 2022 against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York). In an interview with Punchbowl News, Ocasio-Cortez, known popularly as “AOC” said she had not made a decision whether to launch a challenge. “I am not a bullshit kind of person,” she said. “I am not playing coy or anything like that. I’m still very much in a place where I’m trying to decide what is the most effective thing I can do to help our Congress, our political process, and our country actually address the issues of climate change, health care, wage, inequality, etcetera.”
Depending on the outcome of the two Senate runoff elections in Georgia on Wednesday, Schumer stands a chance to become the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate. If Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock are successful respectively in their bids to defeat Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the Senate will be split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats. That would mean that the presiding officer of the U.S. Senate — the Vice President of the United States, who come Jan. 20 will be Kamala Harris — would be entitled to cast the deciding vote.
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Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer Exploring Bid for Governor
San Diego’s former Republican mayor, Kevin Faulconer, has formed an exploratory committee to run for governor of California. If he decides to run, it might be for the regularly scheduled election in 2022, or possibly earlier, if canvassers are able to get 1,495,709 valid signatures of California voters to force a recall election against Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
A story by David Garrick in Tuesday’s San Diego Union-Tribune gave the flavor of what a campaign might be between Faulconer and Newsom. In announcing his committee, Faulconer said: “Between the mismanagement during the key of the pandemic, the toxic business environment, the disappearing jobs, the rolling blackouts, the missing unemployment checks and billions of dollars in fraud, and of course the skyrocketing homelessness, I strongly believe we need new leadership in the governor’s office.”
Newsom’s support committee responded that Faulconer had less than a stellar record as a supporter of President Donald Trump, and as someone who had been unable to solve San Diego’s problem with homelessness..
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com