Carl DeMaio has crossed a lot of people in his various political endeavors. He’s being reminded of that daily in his campaign for the state Assembly.
The radio talk-show host is being opposed by a rare coalition that spans the political spectrum: labor unions, police and firefighter associations, Democrats, Republican elected officials, the state and local Republican parties, and even some real estate interests.
The top financial ers listed on one mailer attacking DeMaio include the California Professional Firefighters, California Correctional Peace Officers Association and the California Apartment Association.
At least five independent campaign efforts are aligned against him. DeMaio, a prolific fundraiser, has a substantial campaign war chest and is also benefiting from his statewide organization, Reform California.
DeMaio is running in the 75th Assembly District, a sprawling East County conservative district that almost certainly will elect a Republican, likely either DeMaio or Andrew Hayes, an aide to state Sen. Brian Jones, R-Santee, who has been endorsed by the Republican Party.
Incumbent Republican Marie Waldron is termed out this year.
A contested primary in a solid Republican district might not typically attract labor involvement but DeMaio changes that equation. While statewide committees are taking the lead, there are underlying long-time San Diego disputes, as Politico pointed out last week.
Also contributing to the anti-DeMaio cause is the California Labor Federation, which is led by Lorena Gonzalez, who as a San Diego labor leader has clashed with DeMaio for years.
The Peace Officers Research Association of California is also spending money to defeat DeMaio. PORAC is headed up by Brian Marvel, the former president of the San Diego Police Officers Association who also has clashed with DeMaio.
DeMaio has been virulently anti-union and as a member of the San Diego City Council spearheaded a voter-approved ballot measure that did away with pensions for most municipal workers, except police officers, hired after July 20, 2012. The measure was overturned in court about a decade later and the city is now working to restore pensions to affected workers.
DeMaio envisioned that public employee pension bans would take hold across the state, but that never happened.
He also backed a related five-year pay freeze for city employees and restrictions on other benefits for employees, including police officers, that were not affected by the court rulings.
DeMaio maintained pensions were too generous and were bleeding money from government budgets.
He’s familiar with opposition from labor and said that doesn’t faze him. “I wear that with a badge of honor,” he said in an interview.
As for Hayes, DeMaio said, “This guy is backed by corrupt forces in Sacramento” — both Republican and Democrat.
Jones, who is the Senate Republican leader, is backing independent efforts for Hayes and against DeMaio. So are Waldron, county Supervisor Joel Anderson and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Bonsall. Issa defeated DeMaio in a contentious 2020 race for an East County-centric congressional district.
DeMaio also lost races for mayor in 2012 and for Congress to Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, in 2014 after serving one term on the City Council.
Clearly, DeMaio’s opponents don’t want him in the Legislature or, it seems, any other elected office. But their first order of business appears to be getting the lesser-known Hayes through the primary on March 5.
There are no guarantees in politics, but DeMaio seems poised to advance to November. He is being hit with negative mailers, contending he’s a “Never Trumper” and that he ed “defunding our first responders.”
In turn, DeMaio says he backs former President Donald Trump, and maintains Hayes is being propped up by Democrats and labor unions. Both have claimed they are the strongest on border enforcement and are the more conservative candidate. At times, they’ve mimicked Trump’s penchant for giving opponents derogatory names.
“‘Amnesty Andrew’ Hayes can’t be trusted on illegal immigration,” says one mailer backing DeMaio.
In a campaign release, Hayes accused “Crooked Carl DeMaio” of using donations to his Reform California committee for the Assembly race.
Beyond the attack pieces to dissuade Republican voters from ing Hayes, DeMaio is making an appeal to Democratic voters, sort of. DeMaio’s campaign has been promoting the Democratic Party-endorsed candidate, Kevin Juza.
It’s an increasingly common campaign tactic to boost a perceived weaker opponent in hopes they will outdistance a stronger one in the primary.
The anti-DeMaio forces have responded in kind, though so far not in a big way. They made a small ad buy on Facebook to promote Democrat Christie Dougherty in an apparent effort to dilute the DeMaio-juiced Juza vote — which, in theory, could help Hayes.
This is becoming quite a tangled web.
Also running are Democrat Joy Frew and Republican Jack Fernandes.
If DeMaio ends up facing Hayes in November, that could upend in his grand plan to arrive in Sacramento as something of a kingpin.
Winning an Assembly seat isn’t so much his goal as it is a vehicle to shake up the California Republican Party and remake it in his image. The Republicans in both houses of the Legislature have shrunk to such minorities that they have little influence.
“I don’t think the Republican Party is in any condition to change California, and we intend to fix that,” DeMaio told The San Diego Union-Tribune in December after he announced his candidacy.
Locking down a safe Republican seat is part of the strategy.
“This will allow me to focus my attention on raising money to flip seats across the state of California to end the Democrats’ supermajority control in Sacramento,” he told the Voice of San Diego.
Presumably, those candidates he helped would become allies in challenging Republican leaders who “have been unwilling or unable to fight.”
None of that would be a given even if DeMaio has minimal opposition in November. It might be impossible if he actually has to focus his resources and attention on what could be a tough battle against Hayes.
DeMaio has taken pride in trying to be a disruptive force to change the status quo in government and politics.
The enemies he’s made along the way seem determined to disrupt his journey to Sacramento.
What they said
San Diego Police Department (sandiegopd on Instagram) after officers encountered a pedestrian using Apple Vision Pro.
“Folks. . . let’s cross streets the old-fashioned way.”
