Calvin, Macias Won’t Count Themselves Out in City Council Bids

Saying that many Southeast San Diego residents have encouraged him to continue his City Council campaign despite his failure to qualify for the ballot, businessman Richard (Tip) Calvin announced Monday that he plans to run as a write-in candidate in the 4th District September primary.

Meanwhile, another disqualified council candidate, 8th District hopeful Jesse Macias, appealed to the San Diego city clerk’s office in an effort to have certain signatures on his nominating petitions that were declared invalid ruled, as he put it, “legally sufficient” to have his name placed on the ballot. The signatures were ruled invalid by the county voter registrar’s office.

Calvin and Macias were among seven council candidates who were disqualified from the Sept. 15 primary last week for failing to secure the 200 signatures of registered voters needed to get their names on the ballot. The other disqualified candidates include Wes Pratt, now on leave from his position as administrative assistant to county Supervisor Leon Williams; radio broadcaster Gloria Tyler-Mallery in the 4th District, and three 6th District contenders--investment broker Keith Behner, consultant Robert McCullough and school teacher Mark Potocki.

McCullough and Tyler-Mallery took out write-in petitions from the city clerk’s office last week, while Pratt, who had been endorsed by outgoing 4th District Councilman William Jones and was regarded as the front-runner in that race, is weighing that option.

Door-to-Door Campaign

Calvin, who was disqualified from the ballot when only 181 of the 255 signatures that he collected were declared valid, said that he decided to continue his candidacy only after numerous supporters told him that they believe he can overcome the tough odds that face any write-in candidate.

“I’m aware of the history of past write-ins, but I heard many of my supporters saying, ‘Allow the district a chance to vote for you and for themselves,’ ” said Calvin, a popular 4th District businessman.

The fact that the September primary is confined to the district, rather than being a citywide election, also has encouraged Calvin about the prospects of success for what he described as a “door-to-door education campaign” on the write-in process. The top two vote-getters in each district primary will face each other in the November citywide general election.

Calvin also used Monday’s announcement to take a verbal swipe at one of the major candidates in the 4th District contest--Marla Marshall, a title company account manager and former administrative assistant to San Diego City Councilwoman Gloria McColl. Marshall has drawn criticism from other candidates over her recent move into the 4th District to seek the seat being vacated by Jones, and over her strong Republican backing; some Southeast San Diego leaders have charged that the city’s establishment is trying to dictate the selection of the district’s new council member.

“This district must have a choice,” Calvin said. “We will not allow those outside of the district to select our council person. We will not allow time as an assistant to be the only reason to select our council person.”

Macias, meanwhile, has opted for a different tack in his bid to revive his 8th District campaign for the seat now held by appointed incumbent Celia Ballesteros.

Regarded as a major figure in the 8th District race because of his relatively high name recognition from his former days as a television news reporter, Macias collected 385 signatures--many more than the other disqualified candidates--but fell 20 short of the required 200-name figure when 205 of them were disallowed.

The most common reasons for signatures being declared invalid, a registrar’s spokeswoman said, were that they were illegible or came from persons who either were not registered to vote or registered at an address other than that listed on the petitions.

Cites ‘Good-Faith Effort’

After reviewing the disqualified signatures on his petitions, Macias identified 25 names--five more than he needs to meet the ballot requirement--that he argues were not counted because of “minor technical errors.” Most of the signatures in question were disqualified, Macias said, because they listed incorrect addresses--in most cases, business rather than residential addresses.

Macias concedes that each of the 25 signatures and the accompanying registration data on the petitions includes some erroneous information. But he hopes that city officials will conclude that he made, in his words, “a real strong good-faith effort to comply with the intent” of the law and will overturn the registrar’s decision.

“If they go by a real strict interpretation, we don’t have a ghost of a chance,” Macias said. “But our feeling is that some of these people inadvertently put down the wrong information. It was an oversight, but we shouldn’t be penalized to the extent of being removed from the race.”

Gary Hess, the city’s assistant elections officer, said that Macias’ appeal has been forwarded to the city attorney’s office for review. The city attorney’s decision could come as early as today , but is unlikely to alter Macias’ candidacy status, Hess added.

“We don’t think those signatures can be (counted), but we wanted to play it safe,” Hess said. “A change isn’t very likely at this point.”