SAN DIEGO (SDJW)—District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis dominated the U-T coverage of Tuesday’s election, with a news story, two sidebars, an editorial and a pair of letters to the editor on the race which she won handily against the challenges of Bob Brewer and Terri Wyatt.
A story by Kristina Davis was headlined, “Dumanis in Command,” and put to bed before the final count, it reported that she was leading the race and that both her mother and her spouse were delighted. The story also recapped the news that Dumanis had written a letter to the University of San Diego favoring the application of the son of Jose Susumo Azano Matsura, a central figure in a federal investigation concerning foreign influence in the 2012 mayor’s race in which Dumanis ran unsuccessfully.
U-T columnist Logan Jenkins noted that news of the letter broke on election day, and that absentee votes in her race against Brewer already had been cast. Nobody knows how many votes the news may have impacted, Jenkins wrote.
U-T columnist Matt Hall, in his column on what people are talking about on social media, quoted messages from the Dumanis campaign and detractors that could be read on Twitter on Tuesday. Some focused on whether she was trying to duck the issue until after the election.
A U-T editorial was headlined, “Dumanis Wins, but questions remain.” The editorial board said it felt Dumanis was the right choice “but avoiding questions only adds credence to critics’ suggestions that the county’s top prosecutor has something to hide.”
In the letters section, Ken Platt wrote Dumanis has been doing a good job putting the bad guys in jail. And Van C. Elliott, who said he voted absentee for Brewer but now regrets it, said he felt “last minute declarations with no chance to refute or explain, are the height of gutter politics.”
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Art Sherman, trainer of the Triple Crown horse racing prospect California Chrome, only got two stories in the U-T, thereby coming in second. (Let’s hope that doesn’t happen when they run the Belmont Stakes on Saturday).
In a front page story by Ed Zieralski, jockeys and other trainers who had horses that won the first two races of the triple crown – the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes –then lost or had to withdraw from the Belmont reflected on how disappointing that can be. However, Doug O’Neill, who trained the double winner I’ll Have Another in 2012 said, “You need to have a great horse to win it, and I think Art Sherman has that horse this year.”
The U-T carried in its sports section an AP story by Mike Farrell reporting that Art Sherman has now joined his son, Alan Sherman, at the Belmont Park track, which is in New York where he grew up. “I haven’t been back to Willilamsburg (a section of Brooklyn) in many years,” the father said. “It’s changed quite a bit. I probably can’t afford Williamsburg now.”
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Also in the U-T’s sports section, Bill Pinella in his “From Pages Past” column noted that 50 years ago Dodger Pitcher Sandy Koufax racked up his third no-hitter, facing only 27 Philadelphia Phillies batters (but allowing one walk) in a 3-0 victory.
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Pat Sherman of the La Jolla Light reported on June 3 that the La Jolla Democratic Club had decided on May 18 to endorse a campaign by Howard Singer and the San Diego County Diversity and Inclusiveness Group that he formed for the renaming of the La Jolla Christmas Parade and Holiday Festival. The Club’s President Derek Casady reported he thought there might be some members who would defend the Christmas name, but in fact Singer’s proposal was non-controversial.
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Preceding prepared by San Diego Jewish World staff, which takes this opportunity to wish a “Happy Birthday” to co-publisher Nancy Harrison