https://www.sandiego.gov/ethics/documents/donors

Funding for Big City San Diego Supporting Todd Gloria for Mayor 2024 has since included cash from Fresno-based Klein Financial, San Diego lobbyist Atlantis Group Land Use Consultants, a La Jolla-based subsidized housing developer called Monarch Housing Solutions, and Building a Stronger California, Sponsored by the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters of Los Angeles.

Future hits and misses

A battle between San Diego’s politics of the past and those of the its possible future is playing out in this year’s mayoral race. Forces for Democratic mayor Todd Gloria — backed by housing developers, labor unions, and wealthy Democrats — have lined up a host of seasoned campaign operatives, including a reputed specialist in the dark arts of political attacks.

A good deal of Gloria’s support currently comes from a Los Angeles-based independent campaign committee calling itself Big City San Diego. The group, which registered with the city clerk’s office on December 7 of last year, lists Jacob A. James as Principal Officer. James "has spent his career building the power and influence of organizations seeking to create global change," according to an online profile by his public affairs firm Dudley & Finch, LLC.

Todd Gloria: San Diego mayor hires LA tricksters.

"As a professional advocate, Jacob has advanced legislative and executive actions around the world," per a July 1, 2022, profile on the website of the San Diego Foundation, where Jacobs was on the group’s Board of Governors. "His ability to problem solve and create impact across cultural barriers came as a result of his unique life experiences, including being ‘the gay millennial son of a Navy SEAL and a Sharp health care nurse’ and living ‘as an evangelical Christian for 18 years on a San Diego naval base.’ Although he’s not particularly religious today, the deep connection Jacob has to faith through his mother’s example helps him empathize and connect with others. LGBTQ+ rights, mental health access and women’s pay equity — all informed by his lived experiences — are causes that Jacob has a deep passion for outside of his environmental work."

On January 25, Big City San Diego filed with the city clerk to officially rename itself Big City San Diego Supporting Todd Gloria for Mayor 2024. Funding for the effort has since included cash from Fresno-based Klein Financial ($10,000, February 5), San Diego lobbyist Atlantis Group Land Use Consultants ($5000, February 8), a La Jolla-based subsidized housing developer called Monarch Housing Solutions ($25,000, January 25), and Building a Stronger California, Sponsored by the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters of Los Angeles ($50,000, March 4).

The pro-Gloria forces have imported a roster of the nation’s top tech brains for a slick online campaign. Big City San Diego has so far paid Meta, Inc., the parent of Facebook and Instagram, a total of $21,250. Among Big City San Diego’s other vendors is an outfit called Point Loma Strategic Research, run by Greg Scanlon.

In 2016, the trade publication Campaigns & Elections named Scanlon an up-and-comer in the opposition research business. "Oppo researchers are storytellers at heart and there’s one tale that Scanlon has become famous for. He was hired by the [Democratic Governors Association] in January 2013 and helped set up the group’s first permanent, in-house research department.

A major victory for the nascent department came 11 months later when New Hampshire restaurateur and radio host Chuck Rolecek opted not to seek the state GOP’s gubernatorial nomination after it emerged he’d declared his Hilton Head vacation home as a primary residence to save thousands of dollars in property taxes.

But that was small ball compared to Scanlon’s time in Virginia, when as the research director at the Democratic Party of Virginia and House Caucus, he helped trigger the inquiry that led to the nine-and-a-half year federal prison sentence for former state Del. Phil Hamilton (R) on bribery and extortion charges." The obvious target of any opposition research undertaken by pro-Gloria Big City San Diego would be the mayor’s general election opponent, San Diego cop Larry Turner. Scanlon’s firm has so far been paid $15,000 by Big City San Diego, according to the group’s filing for the first six months of this year with the city clerk’s office.

Cashing in

Which San Diego political committees collected the most cash during the first half of this year? Results, in the form of semi-annual disclosure filings with the city clerk’s office, are in. At the top of the list is an anti-public power ownership campaign committee calling itself Responsible Energy San Diego, which reported raking in a grand total of $592,725.

Most of the money came from San Diego Gas & Electric, owned by utility giant Sempra Energy, which set up Responsible Energy to tank a voter signature drive aimed at putting a measure on the municipal ballot to force Sempra’s San Diego Gas & Electric to turn its city electrical energy franchise over to city hall. The pro-public power ownership forces failed to collect sufficient signatures to compel the turnover vote and the city council declined an option to order the move. The committee pushing the ultimately failed initiative, Power San Diego PAC, took in less than the Sempra group’s war chest, $164,512.

Voters saw through New San Diego’s effort to elect Jane Glasson.

Meanwhile, participants in the battle for mayor were also busy fundraising. Re-Elect Mayor Todd Gloria 2024 took in $130,586. Turner for Mayor 2024, belonging to Gloria’s general election challenger Larry Turner, raised only $54,058. But those two so-called controlled committees, run by the candidates themselves and bound by law to $1350 individual contribution limits, are only part of the story.

Independent Expenditure committees, not under the control of the individual candidates and free of any restrictions on the amount donors — including corporations, labor unions, and business partnerships — can kick in, have this year been playing a larger role than ever in municipal politics, filings show. Los Angeles-based Big City San Diego, backing Gloria, raised $141,498 over the first six months of 2024.

The San Diego Police Officers Association PAC, backing Turner for mayor and financed by unitemized cash from its police officer membership, took in $90,318.

Then there was New San Diego, the independent committee run by Democratic Gloria backer Gil Cabrera which earlier this year went to bat for neophyte Republican mayoral hopeful Jane Glasson, a failed effort widely viewed as an attempt to keep Turner from making the November run-off against Gloria. New San Diego, with a sizable stash of corporate funding already in the bank from previous years, took in $32,500 in 2024 before permanently folding its tent June 21.

An array of other big money independent committees representing special interests are also in the fray this year, including Protect Neighborhood Services Now, sponsored by the San Diego city employees labor organization, which came up with a hefty $323,000 to place second after Responsible Energy San Diego in the fund-raising derby. Third place was held by the San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council Independent Expenditure PAC at $314,942. Contributions included $10,000 on February 29 from the State Building and Construction Trades Council PAC of Sacramento, $20,000 from the United Nurses Association of California/Union of Health Care Professionals PAC, of Long Beach, and $25,000 from PACE of California School Employees Association of Sacramento.

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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