BY THOM SENZEE
In a joint press conference, San Diego LGBT Weekly publisher, Stampp Corbin, San Diego businessman Michael Pallamary and local resident and activist Elisa Brent, told reporters at Civic Center Plaza, near City Hall this morning that they would team up as co-chairs to organize the recall campaign against Mayor Bob Filner.
While the trio presented a united front, reporters drilled Corbin and Pallamary about their motivations.
Pallamary is clear. He wants Filner gone from the mayor’s office. At the same time, Corbin says he wants voters to get a chance to answer the recall question once and for all.
“I have one objective,” Corbin said. “That is to give the people of this city the chance to have their voices heard.”
Corbin continued, saying that the only way for the city’s business to go forward is for “everyone to be able to move on” from the Filner accusations and lawsuit about sexual harassment, which the mayor allegedly committed against eight woman who have worked for him.
“The only way for that to happen is to hold a recall election,” Corbin said.
On that sentiment, Pallamary, Brent and Corbin’s unity is quite clear.
“I was just talking to a man who is pulling out of a large project here in San Diego – because of the chaos in the City caused by this mayor’s troubles,” Pallamary said. “This is affecting the local the economy now.”
Pressed by reporters about whether he has an opinion about the mayor’s guilt Corbin was simultaneously definite and non-revelatory.
“Of course, I have an opinion about the mayor,” he said. “But my opinion doesn’t matter. This is about the voters; this isn’t about me.”
Asked about the partnership Pallamary told LGBT Weekly,
“We share the most important passion, which is we are concerned about the people and the business of this city.”
Last month, Mayor Bob Filner came under fire – first in a series of press conferences led by former City Councilwoman and former Filner transparency czar, Donna Frye; then by famed civil and women’s rights attorney, Gloria Allred, who filed a civil suit against the mayor and the City on behalf of Irene McCormack-Jackson, Filner’s former communications director.
Yesterday, City Attorney Jan Goldsmith announced that dueling recall efforts could occur simultaneously, but that only one could be put on the ballot. However, with today’s press conference, that point appears moot.
“Now, we’re about raising the money to make this happen,” Pallamary, whose business is land-use consulting, said.
He encouraged San Diego residents and others to contribute to the recall effort.
“If you drive to work in San Diego, but live in El Cajon, you still have an interest in seeing this recall happen …”
One sticking point that had separated the previously competing recall efforts was the fact that Pallamary and Brent wanted to use paid signature gatherers, while Corbin opposed using paid petitioners.
“Those are the same tactics used against my community in the Proposition 8 campaign,” Corbin said.
However, in his desire to give San Diegans their say at the ballot, he has expressed openness on that point. The recall campaign will use paid signature gatherers.
“I hope we will use as many volunteers as possible,” Corbin said in a nod to his growing image as the populist in the recall campaign, adding that he hoped the seven City Councilmembers who called for the mayor to resign would engage their organizations in an effort to collect signatures.
I don’t ever trust the motivations of Republicans such as Elisa Brent and Michael Pallamary. The first thing Republicans do when they have even a shred of insinuation is to cry, “Impeach, Recall!” To have these two saying they only care about the voters, the citizens of San Diego, is such a farce. They want nothing more than to control the city coffers in order to line their pockets with cash. And to use this as a stepping stone into higher politics where they stand to make a great deal more money. That’s the top of their bucket lists.
Now, I believe Filner wants to help San Diego, and so far I like the positive steps he is taking. Does that condone his behavior? No.
And, with people such as Donna Frye and Gloria Allred, people who Republicans consistently chastise, condemn, and criticize which make them people I admire (the targets of Republicans are usually good, honest people, in my opinion), people who actually do work for the good of the people, at odds with Filner leads me to question his fitness for the office.
It’s one thing to do good things for San Diego. But you must have the trust of all your citizens. Not just the half with whom you don’t molest.
Reply to 1st Quote (Palimony?) say, wasn’t that when Lee Marvin had to pay off his ex-girlfriend? My bad Pallamany’s recall of the San Diego Mayor.
King Solomon in the Bible had many, many wives and the Song of Songs may suggest why.
“The greater the man, the greater his evil inclination” [In the Talmud, the term “evil inclination” (yetzer hara) is often used to mean the libido]. King Solomon didn’t live as long as Methuselah.
Strom Thurmond was the first man to reach his 100th birthday while in the U.S. Senate. Strom married his first wife, Jean, on Nov. 7, 1947, after she graduated college. Thurmond then hired her as his personal secretary. Thurmond was a judge in the pageant in which she had won the Miss South Carolina of 1947 Crown. There was no issue from this marriage.
Jean having died of natural causes, Strom Thurmond married his second wife, Nancy, another Miss South Carolina (of 1965), on December 22, 1968. He was 66 years old and she was 22. She had been working in his Senate office off and on for almost a year. At age 68, Thurmond fathered what was believed to be his first child. He had three other children with Nancy. Sixth months after the death of Thurmond, Essie Mae Washington-Williams grudgingly revealed that she was his daughter. She’s a retired L.A. Unified teacher, and she identifies as African American. She was born on October 12, 1925, to a girl who had reached 16 years of age, and who was working for the Thurmond family when Strom, then 23, impregnated her. She did not reveal she was Strom’s daughter during his lifetime because it “wasn’t to the advantage of either one of us.” After Essie Mae came forward, the Thurmond family publicly acknowledged her. And she then joined the DAR & the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
So far, cartoonist Steve Breen hasn’t vowed — in his continuing U-T biopics — to not show Bob Filner in bed with a prostitute. J. Edgar Hoover was convinced that Martin Luther King Jr. had a super-sized libido. I attended the rally. And I couldn’t and can’t see why almost a quarter-million Filner votes should be overthrown in a putsch. Both Bob and Martin did time: Mississippi State Pen and Birmingham Jail, respectively. But neither stint was for violating employed women under their control.