A liberal mayor takes on the San Diego establishment [View all]

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Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times, June 2
SAN DIEGO — Under a pro-business Republican mayor, it was a no-brainer: allocating millions of dollars each year to buy national advertising for the tourism industry — a major economic driver in this vacation mecca.

Then Bob Filner got elected, and he had questions: Why couldn't Sheraton and Hilton buy their own advertising? And why should the cash-strapped city lavish funds on an industry that pays low wages to bottom-rung employees like maids and bellhops?

The new Democratic mayor also thought the city attorney should provide him with legal guidance on the matter in private, not in front of reporters.

So he crashed Jan Goldsmith's news conference.

"You not only have been unprofessional but unethical," Filner scolded the city attorney, "and I resent it greatly that you're giving your advice to the press."

Goldsmith, a Republican former judge and state legislator, neither backed down nor rose to the verbal combat.

"He's the mayor," Goldsmith said after Filner left. "He's got his own personality, his own character."

Truer words may have never been spoken about Filner, 70, a former history professor at San Diego State, school board member, city councilman and 10-term congressman.

Since taking office in December, Filner has battled other elected officials, irritated the city's business establishment and infuriated the conservative editorial page of the U-T San Diego newspaper, which has called him a bully and compared him to the Joker in the "Batman" movies.

"San Diego has never had a mayor like this, style-wise," said Steve Erie, a political science professor at UC San Diego. "Filner is San Diego's first really strong mayor, using the bully pulpit and aggressive style to advance his populist agenda."

Confrontation has long been a Filner political trademark. At congressional hearings he regularly derided Veterans Affairs officials over poor care, making him a favorite of veterans groups.

full: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-san-diego-mayor-20130602,0,7526448,full.story
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