Politics Report: U-T Editorial Board, Cooked

Even before Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe popped off on the Union-Tribune’s Editorial Board this week, the Board caught my eye. 

The Editorial Board recently started endorsing City Council candidates, as it does every election year. 

So far this year, the board has chosen Richard Bailey, Mark Powell, Gerardo Ramirez and sitting Councilmember Henry Foster III.

It’s not the endorsements themselves that got my attention. It’s who’s actually making them. 

Editorial Board may sound like a large, imposing group of people sitting around a long mahogany table; but in the case of the U-T it is not. Now, it is just two people. 

Editorial Boards are misunderstood little life forms. When a newspaper endorses a candidate, regular people don’t really know what that means. They think that the upper echelons of people at the U-T sit down and decide who to back. Not exactly. 

The paper’s Editorial Board decides. It has generally been a group of people totally walled off — at least metaphorically — from the rest of the newsroom. Sometimes it might include the paper’s publisher or editor-in-chief. Frequently, it is just a group of opinion writers. 

That’s how it has worked at the U-T. In 2023, the Board has had as many as seven people. It was a group of opinion writers — no upper management — doing their thing, apart from the rest of the operation. 

To be sure, it had quite a few White men — some liberal, some conservative. But it also had several young people and women of color. They would do copious research, have intense deliberations about whom to endorse and eventually come to a decision.  

The Board lost three people to buy outs when Alden Global Capital purchased the U-T in 2023. Another left. Then another got laid off and claimed she was censored for writing about immigration raids. That left two. 

The U-T’s current board is made up of Chris Reed and Tania Navarro, both long time reporters and editors. This isn’t aimed at either of them personally. It’s aimed at the number of them — and the wild presumption of two people, hiding behind the title of Editorial Board, telling a county of 3.3 million people how to vote. 

Montgomery Steppe came at Reed by name in her social media post. She insinuated he was essentially in charge of making the endorsements himself. 

She also accused the Board of racism, writing that it chose an “absurd” photo of her that made her look like an “angry Black woman.” 

I texted Reed, but he told me he didn’t want to comment. He said the Editorial Board was working on its own response to Montgomery Steppe to be published Friday. 

The Board appeared to release that response, in the form of an endorsement of Kristine Alessio, Montgomery Steppe’s opponent. 

The endorsement barely addressed Montgomery Steppe’s criticisms. “The U-T Editorial Board has no desire to feud with Montgomery Steppe,” Reed and Navarro simply wrote. 

Montgomery Steppe’s criticism contained one other interesting kernel. She said the Editorial Board asked her only four questions. 

“No in depth interview about the body of my work or qualifications. Four questions. Asking me about other people’s policies and priorities rather than mine,” she wrote. 

It’s true. The Board asked her and Alessio both only four questions. 

That too is a departure from the past.  

I have heard from past Board members that the previous endorsement process was extremely arduous. It required lots of research and discussion. And beyond that, it required in-depth interviews, conducted live with the candidates. The Board would sometimes interview candidates for an hour each and then post the recordings or transcripts. 

Now the Board is limiting candidates to about 600 words — and using those words as a serious basis for the final endorsement decision.

As the number of people on the Board has decreased, it’s not just a diversity of opinions that has been lost. It’s also the Board’s ability to conduct a robust, heavily-researched endorsement process. 

— Will Huntsberry

Josh Coyne, Well-Known Protecting Neighborhoods Guy

If you’re new here, we want to see the mailers, interesting social media ads and campaign text messages you receive. We got a good text message advertisement this week. 

It was touting Josh Coyne, who is running in the southern coastal City Council district against several other people including Richard Bailey, Nicole Crosby and Mandy Havlik. 

“Democrats in our district have had enough of politicians who talk about protecting neighborhoods and then approve every developer project that comes through City Hall,” the ad said. Coyne will “oppose height limit increases in coastal communities” and “demand real community input before any major development moves forward.” 

That felt strange because in a previous candidate forum Coyne seemed like an unrepentant pro-growth, YIMBY kind of guy. 

He also previously told us he supports the Midway Rising project moving forward, even though it will breach the height limit. 

We asked Coyne whether he stands by the ad. Coyne seemed surprised. He said he hadn’t been aware of it, but would get back to us with a few thoughts. At press time, we still hadn’t heard from him.  

Coyne himself didn’t pay for the ad. It was paid for LiUNA, the laborers union. 

Related: Bailey seems to have gotten some inspiration from the socialist who won New York’s mayoral race: Zohran Mamdani.

Check out their logos. Mamdani’s:

And Bailey’s:

GOP Chaos: Which Is the Real Republican Voter Guide?

Loyal Politics Report subscribers will remember the Republican Party of San Diego County’s inability or unwillingness to settle on key endorsements this cycle. The Central Committee did not put out an official Republican Party voter guide.

It seemed to work out just fine for Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, whose Reform California voter guide was set to fill the vacuum. But his rivals, Sen. Brian Jones, Rep. Darrell Issa and the former chair of the Republican Party, before DeMaio ousted him, Corey Gustafson, put together their own Big Beautiful Voter Guide.

Now they’re attacking each other.

“We have now confirmed that the FAKE Republican Voter Guide mailer has hit every neighborhood in North and East San Diego County – along with blatantly dishonest mailers attacking our endorsed Republican candidates in target races. You most likely received at least one of these deceptive mailers or you soon will!” DeMaio warned his followers.

He pointed them to the “REAL San Diego County Voter Guide for Republicans” at RepublicanVoterGuideCA.com.

The two big Republican battles this June are in the county supervisor race, where San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones is running against Vista Mayor John Franklin for the chance to face Democrat Kyle Krahel in North County. The other is the race to replace Sen. Brian Jones, where Republican Kristie Bruce-Lane is running against San Marcos Republican City Councilmember Ed Musgrove.

DeMaio supports Jones and Kristie Bruce-Lane, as does his voter guide.

It certainly looks official, what with the “official” label.

But then there’s the thumbnail rendering that comes up when someone texts you the link to the REAL guide DeMaio puts out.

And that definitely looks like it’s from the Central Committee. What with the “Central Committee” tag on it, for example. But the Central Committee, again, did not take a position on these two key races.

Issa sent a response. “Carl DeMaio is actively lying to Republican voters. He has abandoned any commitment to the truth in his attacks against fellow Republicans.”

He’s touting the San Diego Republican Leadership Endorsement Guide at sdrepublicans.com, which is also not affiliated at all officially with the Republican Party. That guide supports Franklin and Musgrove.

“Carl is wasting valuable time, energy, and resources on destructive intraparty fights that only hurt our movement,” Issa wrote. The party of course could settle a lot of this but the local GOP has dissolved away into a forum simply for infighting leaving a vacuum this kind of fight.

Off the Record: It Was a Huge Success

Thank you to everyone who came to last week’s Off the Record event (you can see some of the photos here). Matt Awbrey and Jamie Fox were as good as ever as emcees and a special gratitude for chairing and inspiring the event to Lani Lutar. The organizers were amazing: our Julianne Markow, Kaila Weedman and Kaylie Sadlon (K2) And a big thanks to our video guy, John DeBello and Richard Bailey, Barbara Bry, Vivian Moreno, Dan Rottenstreich, Brigette Browning, Sean Elo-Rivera, Bill Wells, Steve Vaus, Chris Cate, Nick Serrano and Lauren Cazares. Your senses of humor are elite.

It seems we’ll have to do it bigger and better again next year.

If you have any feedback or ideas for the editorial board of the Politics Report, send them to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org or will.huntsberry@voiceofsandiego.org.

The post Politics Report: U-T Editorial Board, Cooked appeared first on Voice of San Diego.