Politics Chat - April 22, 2008

Union-Tribune politics writer Matthew Hall answered questions from readers during a Tuesday morning chat session at uniontrib.com/chat.

matthew_hall(P) Hey everybody. I'm all ears and fingers for the next hour. Let's talk about coucil pay, auto allowances, the SEC or the local elections -- or anything else on your mind.

padrefan1(Q) how do you see the race for city attorney playing out?

matthew_hall(A) Six weeks until Election Day and that's a lot of time. Conventional wisdom says the incumbent, Michael Aguirre, despite his loud detractors, has enough of a base to make a runoff election in November (if no candidate takes 50 percent of the vote June 3.) That leaves the others dueling for the second seat at that table,and I'd say it's still wide open. Judge Jan Goldsmith will benefit from money pouring into the local GOP and being spent on his behalf, Councilman Brian Maienschein has a lot of support in voter-rich Council District 5 and Councilman Scott Peters can pump his own money into the campaign, so each has his advantages. The council members have their baggage, too, because of San Diego's recent financial woes. Expect to hear from all of them in your mailbox soon.

kevin(Q) Any luck in tracking down the Sainz e-mail that's the subject of the Reynolds lawsuit?

matthew_hall(A) A request has been made. You got it and want to share?

diego72(Q) Do you think the city council will institute a pay raise? Or is the subject so politicized at this point, that it would be impossible?

matthew_hall(A) Council members rejected a raise yesterday -- one week after their approval of one set off some public criticism -- and in doing so several council members reiterated their age-old resistance to voting on their own salaries. There will now be an effort to put something on the November ballot to take that decision out of the council's hands. It will work its way through the ballot measure-making process at City Hall and we'll see what the end result is. Some people favor tying council salaries to Superior Court judges pay as the county Board of Supervisors do. That means council pay would increase on par with the average increase of state workers. Some people support this. Others say it would cut the public out of the process. Clearly it was public sentiment that led the council to reverse course this week. Not sure if the criticism would have changed minds if the council wasn't voting itself. But this is an issue that will attract much discussion in the months to come.

matthew_hall(P) Thanks to those who tuned in. The day awaits us all.

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