East County News Service

October 11, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – A local political race for an open state Senate seat has remained relatively low profile, pitting Santee Councilman and former three-term Assemblyman Brian W. Jones against Cal Fire Captain Jeff Griffith, who is also a paramedic and two-term Palomar Health District board member. Both are fired up to fill the 38^th state Senate seat left vacant by Joel Anderson due to term limits.

By Miriam Raftery

Photos: Randy Voepel, left; James Elia, right.

October 10, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) — James Elia, the Democratic nominee running for State Assembly in the 71st Assembly District, has been clamoring to debate his opponent, incumbent Randy Voepel, a Republican. But Voepel has gone to extremes to dodge debates and candidate forums, even ducking out of the building when a fire alarm conveniently went off at a recent even where Voepel was slated to speak and spotted his opponent in the room.

By Miriam Raftery

October 9, 2018 (El Cajon)—Jesse Kendrick, son of El Cajon Councilman Gary Kendrick, has filed a police report accusing Councilman Ben Kalasho of twice stalking and harassing him on the campaign trail, including pursuing him some two miles, at times blocking his way.Kalasho is running against Kendrick on the November ballot.

Jesse Kendrick told ECM that on September 28, he was driving a licensed golf cart in Fletcher Hills “distributing flyers warning the citizens of El Cajon of Mr. Kalasho’s gross misconduct in office” when I noticed a black Range Rover driving very closely behind me.” Those flyers were titled `The terrifying truth about Ben Kalasho.’  View call records to police.

By Miriam Raftery

October 8, 2018 (Incheon, South Korea) – California must get 60 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2030 and 100 percent clean energy sources by 2045, under the landmark Senate Bill 100 signed into law by Jerry Brown as one of his final acts as Governor. Days later, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a new report for policy makers, written by over 90 scientists and supported by more than 6,000 peer reviews. The report, delivered at a meeting in South Korea, warns that the earth is on track to warm 1.5 degrees Celsius as early as 2030, just 18 years from now.

By Miriam Raftery

October 5, 2018 (El Cajon) -- In his latest campaign piece titled "The Lies vs. The Facts", El Cajon Councilman Kalasho has made claims that are so outlandish that most can best be described as detached from reality. He urges voters to "don't believe what you hear in the press," despite well documented news articles in East County Magazine, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Reader, and multilple network TV stations on his actions.

His piece derides as “fake news” reports that he is guilty of wrongdoing and fraud, faces sexual harassment claims deemed true by a judge, is accused of threatening people with an attack dog, is under investigation, and paid business fines.

Here are the actual documents from official government agencies, court records and more proving that all of these facts reported are the media are not "fake news," but provably true:

Lane claims he and other users are still being blocked and cannot leave comments on Kalasho’s Facebook page

By Paul Kruze, Contributing Editor

October 5, 2018 (El Cajon) -- The peaceful strains of Kumbaya between San Diego activist Mark Lane and El Cajon Councilman Ben Kalasho could be over.

East County Magazine has exclusively learned that Lane’s attorney, Cory M. Briggs, is planning to inform Southern California U.S. District Federal Court Judge Jeffrey T. Miller that Kalasho is continuing to block Lane and others from his Facebook page in spite of a settlement agreement signed last week between Lane and Kalasho that he would stop the practice.

By Miriam Raftery

October 4, 2018 (El Cajon) – El Cajon City Manager Graham Mitchell has sent a second letter again warning Councilman Ben Kalasho to cease illegal use of the city’s official seal/logo on his campaign materials.

The letter states that Kalasho is violating FPPC state ethics laws as well as possibly violating Government Code section 8314. The city’s municipal code also prohibits use of the city logo by officials for non-official city business. Kalasho was previously warned in August and again in September, after complaints were lodged, says Mitchell.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo:  Dave Myers, Bill Baber, Akilah Weber and Guy McWhirter

September 29, 2018 (La Mesa) – La Mesa Councilmembers Bill Baber and Guy McWhirter are running on their records. Their challengers, retired Sheriff’s commander Dave Myers and physician Akilah Weber, are running on the slogan “Elect a cop and a doc.” East County Magazine sat down with all four candidates on our radio show, originally aired on KNSJ. 

Key issues in La Mesa include affordable housing and development vs. community character, downtown revitalization, crime and public safety, public health,  marijuana regulations, the city’s climate action plan, and a potential new library.

You can click the audio links to hear each interview, and scroll down for highlights. Candidates are listed in the order that they scheduled their interviews.

By Miriam Raftery

October 3, 2018 (San Diego) -- One of the most important initiatives on the statewide ballot is Proposition 1, a four billion dollar bond measure to fund affordable housing construction, as well as rental and home loan subsidies. View a short video by Cal Matters here, and scroll down for more details. 

By Ken Stone

Reprinted with permission from Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  Screenshot from Duncan Hunter campaign ad suggests that Ammar Campa-Najjar’s father said “They deserved to die,” referring to Israelis killed in 1972 Olympic attack. Image via Youtube.com

October 1, 2018 (San Diego) - Rep. Duncan Hunter’s YouTube ad attacking his Democratic rival has received four Pinocchios — the worst rating, used for “whoppers” — from The Washington Post’s Fact-Checker column.

East County News Service

October 2, 2018 (Santee) – Santee's Council races have attracted seven candidates for three seats, drawing strong public interest following a heated Council meeting recently over the future of growth and development in the community.  Scroll down for details on two candidate forums, as well as information on all candidates in the race.

Two candidate forums are slated on October 4^th and 9^th for Santee City Council candidates running in districts 1, 2 and 3:

Thursday, Oct. 4, 6 p.m. at Carlton Oaks Golf Club Crest Room, 9200 Inwood Drive, Santee

Tuesday, October 9, 6 p.m. at Pride Academy School, 9303 Prospect Dr., Santee

Video attacking Campa-Najjar, a Christian, is denounced as false “hate-mongering”

By Ken Stone

Reprinted from Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo: Screen shot from Duncan Hunter campaign ad suggests that Ammar Campa-Najjar’s father said “They deserved to die,” referring to Israelis killed in 1972 Olympic attack. Image via YouTube.com

September 28, 2018 (San Diego) - A new 30-second commercial, appearing on Rep. Duncan Hunter’s YouTube channel and shared via Twitter, depicts his Democratic opponent as a security risk bankrolled by the Muslim Brotherhood.

By Laurel Rosenhall, CALmatters

CALmatters is an independent public interest journalism venture covering California state politics and government.

Photo:  State Sen. Joel Anderson, Republican of Alpine. Photo by Robbie Short for CALmatters.

September 26, 2018 (San Diego) - State Sen. Joel Anderson was at least a little tipsy and rubbing a lobbyist’s shoulders during a political fundraiser at a steakhouse near the Capitol last month when he leaned in close and told her he wanted to “bitch slap” her.

By Miriam Raftery

Photos: Ek, McKenna and Vacio billboard; Kiel image via Facebook

September 23, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – The November election could have high stakes in the San Miguel Fire Protection District.  A slate of three incumbents who voted to return the district to local control and axe a contract with Cal-Fire are running for reelection: Theresa McKenna, Jim Ek and Mike Vacio. All are backed by the district’s firefighters. Also in the race is William A. Kiel, son of board member William Kiel, who voted against ending the contract with Cal Fire.

By Miriam Raftery

September 23, 2018 (Washington D.C.) – U.S. Senate has passed an appropriations bill that removed the controversial Aderholt amendment inserted by Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee. The Aderholt amendment would have allowed federally funded child welfare service providers to withhold services for moral or religious reasons, with a stated goal of allowing agencies to ban adoptions of children by same-sex couples. But human rights groups say the measure would also open the door to discriminate based on an adoptive parent’s religion, race, marital status and more.