CA: Judge recuses San Diego bench from mayoral dispute

Bakersfield Californian ^ | 11/11/04 | AP - San Diego

[NormsRevenge]

SAN DIEGO (AP) - The presiding judge of the San Diego Superior Court recused all 124 judges on the bench from hearing a lawsuit attempting to block write-in candidate Councilwoman Donna Frye from becoming mayor.

Judge John Einhorn said he made the decision Wednesday because one of Frye's election rivals, incumbent Mayor Dick Murphy, was a judge for 15 years before he was elected mayor in 2000. Several judges have contributed to Murphy's campaigns, and Einhorn wanted to avoid any appearance of favoritism.

Einhorn arranged with California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George to have the case heard by Charles Jones, a retired jurist from Imperial County.

No hearing date has been set in the suit, which seeks to have the election nullified. The suit, filed by San Diego business attorney John Howard, alleges that write-in candidacies, including Frye's, are illegal under the city charter.

There are 145,271 write-in votes, the vast majority of which are expected to be for Frye. Murphy has 142,157 votes, and county Supervisor Ron Roberts follows with 128,569 votes.

More than 180,000 ballots have yet to be counted. County officials have declined to say whether any candidates besides Frye have received write-in votes.

County registrar of voters Sally McPherson has until Nov. 30 to certify a winner in the mayor's race. After counting the write-in votes, her employees will turn to 110,000 absentee and provisional ballots.

At issue in the lawsuit is a provision of the city charter that says the general election must be a runoff of the top two primary finishers. City Attorney Casey Gwinn says that while the charter does appear to prohibit write-ins, the municipal code explicitly allows them. The city has allowed write-in candidates for years.

Howard is a Roberts supporter and board member of a group that helped craft a ballot measure to give more power to the mayor. Many supporters of the measure, which was approved by city voters last week, are upset that the first person to wield the new authority might be Frye, who opposed the measure.

Roberts said Howard was acting independently of his mayoral campaign, but he criticized City Clerk Chuck Abdelnour for certifying Frye's write-in bid in early October and the city attorney for declining to challenge her candidacy.

[NordP]

This is SUCH an embarrassment to such a lovely city.

...."America's Finest City." So sad.

NordP (www.pledgewear.com) – I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE.

[CyberAnt]

And .. what's ever more frustrating is that REPUBLICANS out register dems by 5% - If repubs would just get off the beach long enough to VOTE, they could get rid of this trash which runs the city govt.

[NordP]

So true. This whole thing is SO embarrassing!