Signature gatherers collect signatures in support of recalling Gov. Gavin Newsom / Photo by Adriana Heldiz
Schools, and when they will reopen for in-person instruction, have become the biggest political issue in the state. Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is running for governor and has talked about little else. We’re old enough to remember writing post after post trying to get him fired up to confront the challenge of how were were going to reopen schools and not having much luck.
Now the fire’s there, though.
Anyway, schools. It was a big week: The governor got into a row with the Legislature after its leaders proposed a much watered-down version of the plan he designed to lure districts into reopening with billions of dollars in spending.
There was also a protest here at dozens of closed schools from parents who want to see them open. And Tuesday, San Diego Unified School District’s next superintendent, Lamont Jackson, and board president Richard Barrera spoke at a forum.
On the governor versus the Legislature: The Los Angeles Times wrote that Gov. Gavin Newsom was disappointed in the Legislature’s proposed framework for the budget that modified his proposal to provide incentives to get schools open. He wants schools to open now and would give them billions of dollars if they did.
But the Legislature wants to give schools the money even if they wait until the spread of the virus goes down much further. And the legislation allows schools to wait until all educators are vaccinated – the governor has warned that requirement will delay reopening and should not be required before schools open.
One of the state’s top legislative leaders is San Diego’s Sen. Toni Atkins, the Senate president. She said all they’re trying to do is keep the conversation going.
“Here are two truths — California’s students need to get back in the classroom, and there is no easy solution to getting them there in the midst of the pandemic,” she wrote in a statement.
Some schools are open now — private schools and several public school districts, including in San Diego County. But most of the larger districts across the state remain closed.
What the San Diego teacher’s union wants: The hardest part of all this for many parents, besides the challenge of educating them each day while also, often, maintaining a career and housework, is that we have no idea what we’re actually waiting for. What are the conditions and levels of vaccination that will allow them to open schools?
This week, though, the Politics Report obtained one clue. At this month’s meeting of the San Diego Education Association, leadership shared a graphic of their demands.
In short, they want to see the case rate go down to the red tier – which means fewer than seven new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people (we’re at 22 right now). They also want to have the right masks and protective equipment and they want to have fewer kids in small classrooms (which seems like maybe a big deal). Finally, they want teachers to be fully vaccinated, not just the first shot.
That’s a steep hill but at least it’s a clear one.
The pressure for districts to find clarity like that is growing. Even Mayor Todd Gloria weighed in Friday.
“I’m calling on school districts to provide clear, specific timelines on getting kids back in the classroom. We need schools to reopen,” he wrote in a statement.
What the district is saying: Barerra appeared this week on a virtual forum on the topic hosted by Parents for Quality Education.
“I think we can be optimistic that the case rates will allow us to move into Phase 2. We are very blessed because our partnership with the city and County Board of Supervisors means we are confident we will begin to get our educators vaccinated as early as two to three weeks for now,” he said.
Phase 2 for San Diego Unified means that grades K-5 go back for half days just four days per week and higher grades go back just two days a week.
If Barrera is right, then by the union’s standard, they would have to get a second vaccine dose and then also wait for it to be fully effective — so as much as eight weeks from now. That’s late April or May. At that point, you only have a little more than a month before the school year ends. It does not restart until the end of August.
Meanwhile: The campaign to recall the governor is going to have a photo finish on its signature-gathering effort. They need almost 1.5 million and they have that many but, as we know all too well in San Diego, often signatures are invalid and you have to collect far more than the number needed to comfortably qualify for the ballot.
Former San Diego mayoral spokesman Ric Grenell, who was President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Germany, among many other roles, is actually preparing to run for governor in a recall campaign.
Also: Local Democrats were excited about Nathan Fletcher’s first State of the County speech as chairman of the Board of Supervisors because of its callout to labor unions and its list of progressive promises. Republican Supervisor Joel Anderson had only positive comments about the speech: “My partnership with Chairman Fletcher on transparency, closing down illegal pot shops and park funding in my district has already shown results for my district and county residents,” he said. “I look forward to working with him on a post-COVID economic recovery plan.”
And Carl DeMaio had this demonstration: Demanding schools and businesses be open, the radio show host also tried to rally support for the recall election and low-key for his friend Grenell.
Carl DeMaio speaks at a rally to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom / Photo by Adriana Heldiz
WSJ: The U-T May Be Sold
Yeah, that was unexpected. The Wall Street Journal, which knows how to cover business issues very well, reported Friday that Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong was considering selling the California Times, the company that includes the Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. One of the suitors was the firm Alden Golden Capital, an investment group that “has sucked much of the life out of the newspapers it already owns in places like Denver and San Jose,” as Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan put it.
Soon-Shiong immediately denied the report and said he was committed to the Times. He omitted the Union-Tribune, which led to hours of anguished tweets from Union-Tribune staff. But then he and his company clarified that neither paper was for sale.
“Dr. Soon-Shiong and his family continue to invest in and plan for the future of the California Times, which includes the L.A. Times and San Diego Union-Tribune, and do not plan to sell,” Chris Argentieri, chief operating officer of the California Times, told a reporter from the paper.
Debate Time: The 79th
Clockwise from top left: Akilah Weber, Leticia Munguia, Shane Parmely, Marco Contreras and Aeiramique Glass-Blake / Photos courtesy of the candidates
Wednesday at 5 p.m. Scott will be hosting a debate between the five candidates to represent the 79th Assembly District.
The Rules of the Local Recall
We ran across an interesting quirk this week in the recall rules in the city of San Diego. The rules are suddenly relevant as the effort to oust Council President Jen Campbell moves forward.
First, what you gotta know: Like many cities, San Diego has its own campaign finance law. Candidates for office in the city, for instance, can only accept contributions from real people – not corporations or trade groups or labor unions. And there are donation limits that depend on whether the candidate is running for a Council seat, or a citywide office. People who support a candidate, however, can form a separate committee free of those restrictions, known as an independent expenditure committee.
The only catch: The people who run an IE can’t strategize and coordinate with the people who run the official candidate committee.
The recall rules: But we also have ballot initiatives. The groups who support or oppose a ballot initiative have different requirements than candidates for office. They’re allowed to collect larger donations and get them from groups or corporations.
The city of San Diego treats a recall election like a candidate election. The state, meanwhile, treats them like ballot measure elections. In other words, Campbell is subject of a recall right now, as is Gov. Gavin Newsom, but they’re dealing with slightly different rules.
Campbell, in attempting to defend herself from the recall, will be subject to all the requirements of any other candidate seeking office. She won’t be able to take donations of more than $650, and they’ll have to come from real people (with one exception: political parties can contribute up to $11,850 to a Council member facing a recall, according to city regulations).
Here’s the twist: The committee urging District 2 residents to vote “yes” on recalling Campbell will be treated like an independent expenditure committee, meaning it’ll be able to take donations in excess of campaign limits, and from anyone.
In other words, Campbell’s committee opposing the recall will face a different set of campaign finance restrictions than the committee supporting the recall. If it qualifies, the recall will be on the ballot as two questions: a yes or no choice to knock Campbell out of office, and then a list of names vying to replace her that will only matter if the answer is “yes.”
Those candidates will have to run under the same set of campaign finance restrictions as Campbell.
That said, Campbell’s supporters would still be allowed to form an independent expenditure committee of their own to bolster the recall opposition. But that group would be restricted from coordinating with Campbell’s campaign.
Speaking of which: We confirmed this week that Dan Rottenstreich, a go-to Democratic campaign consultant, has signed on to run Campbell’s campaign. He said he’s filed the paperwork to open two committees, one as her formal 2022 re-election campaign, and one to oppose the recall. Rottenstreich has steered successful runs for City Attorney Mara Elliott, County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher and Councilwoman Marni Von Wilpert, among others.
The “yes” campaign, meanwhile, has brought in Bridger Langfur, a former City Hall staffer for Councilwoman Barbara Bry and a campaign aide to County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, as its campaign coordinator. That campaign will begin collecting signatures on Feb. 24 and will have 99 days to do so.
Gary Gartner, a District 2 resident and party activist supporting the recall, said he expects the City Council’s vote on proposed regulations of short-term vacation rentals next week to motivate district residents to get involved in the campaign.
“In general, a recall is a drastic step to take, and some people say, ‘Why not wait until next June when there’s an election?’” Gartner said. “But then she’d still be in office almost two more years until December 2022 … from the height limit that passed citywide but not in District 2, there have been so many missteps from her where she’s not listening to her constituents.”
Also: Rottenstreich confirmed that he is the new political consultant for District Attorney Summer Stephan, who won her race to be the county’s top prosecutor in 2018 as a Republican but left the party in 2019 and is now an independent. She’s up for re-election in 2022.
If you have any ideas or feedback for the Politics Report, send them to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org or andrew.keatts@voiceofsandiego.org.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
