Raising Non-City Issues Is Bad Tactic for Cleator

Back in March, City Councilman Bill Cleator indicated in an interview with the San Diego Union that, in his runoff campaign against Maureen O’Connor for mayor, he intended to offer as issues such topics as opposition to California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird, the death penalty and abortion.

Incredibly, and to his great discredit, Cleator even went so far as to seemingly try to make an issue of the fact that O’Connor has no children. At the time, it was not clear whether Cleator was floating a trial balloon to see whether these controversial issues--though totally unrelated to city government--might spice up a listless campaign or whether, as he later told a Times reporter, he had simply answered an interviewer’s questions and had no intention of trying to interject those topics into the race.

Given Cleator’s vow that the comments in the published interview did not represent a new campaign tactic, we resisted our initial impulse to cry foul.

That was March. Now it’s May, and with election day just a month away, Cleator’s campaign has shown few signs of catching fire. So he has turned to what has come to be the last refuge of the desperate candidate, kicking Rose Bird.

The polls show Bird waging an uphill battle in her effort to be confirmed to another six-year term on the Supreme Court. What’s more, polls also suggest that endorsing Bird’s confirmation bid can cause significant political damage to candidates in other races. So now Cleator--who’s not only adept at reading polls about Bird but also at reading the results of the February primary in which O’Connor led him 46% to 30%--suddenly thinks it is important that San Diego voters know how he and O’Connor stand on the chief justice.

While it may be true that people are interested in Rose Bird, the death penalty and abortion, it’s also true they’re interested in nuclear testing, international terrorism and whether the Padres will win the National League pennant. But none of that has anything to do with who will make the better mayor of San Diego. O’Connor is correct in refusing to play the Rose Bird game with Cleator.

Cleator is at what must be a trying stage of the campaign. Facing extremely long odds, he must decide whether to finish the race talking about city issues and his qualifications to be mayor, or start flailing away at various bogeymen in a last-gasp attempt to drive some voters away from O’Connor. We hope he doesn’t embarrass himself by resorting to cheap tactics unworthy of a man who really does have some positive things to say about himself.