Leading birther attorney Gary Kreep has clinched a race for county judge in San Diego, California, beating career prosecutor Garland Peed. With about 1,000 votes left to count, Kreep is ahead by 1,569. The Peed campaign told us last night that they're unlikely to ask for a recount with a margin that big.
Since we started covering the race on our show, we've gotten letters from voters in San Diego who want to explain the Kreep phenomenon. Bob and Jenny say they voted early, by absentee, and got their information about the race from the candidates' ballot statements. Kreep's statement links to his website, but doesn't mention the birther cause. Bob and Jenny write that they decided on Peed because Kreep seemed to them like the wrong brand of mainstream:
We saw that Kreep served on the Reagan delegation to the 1976 & 1980 nominating conventions and that was what convinced us to vote for Peed. It was only after our ballots were sent in that we got more information about the candidates.
Early coverage of the race in the local San Diego Union-Tribune describes this year's judicial elections as "typically low-key" and makes no mention of Kreep's birther activism. Kreep has starred in birther infomercials and served as a lawyer for groups questioning whether Barack Obama was born in the United States.
Jackie in San Diego say her family voted for Kreep because they had no idea:
When my husband and I vote, we sit down together and discuss the candidates and issues. Neither of us knew anything about this judicial race. I thought I remembered a judge in years past whose name was something like "Kreep" and someone had spoken positively about him. Therefore my husband and I both voted for Kreep. I would not have done that had I known that he has a history as an activist for weird issues like birtherism.
Now Kreep tells the local paper that he's hoping to be assigned a spot in family court, where presumably birth certificates like the one President Obama has released are sometimes part of the record. Kreep, who has also advocated against marriage equality, promises to rule on the law and not his personal views.
Bonus: A local columnist in San Diego suggests Kreep is "catnip on a national left-wing cable show" like ours, and says his record is longer and more textured than just suspecting the president's right to be president. It's worth reading.
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So the argument from these people is that they voted in an election where they weren't informed and are now surprised that they didn't know the full story.
Well that is comforting.
Just wait till November. Talk about a disaster from the uneducated, unintelligent masses. This one's going to be ugly folks.
When i think of November,i truly get scared because of situations like these.
What the hell is wrong with the mass?
I really hope,that those who do regret this,would start to pay more attention.
I could say something about bread and circuses, except that Republicans would never hand out free bread like those polyatheistic socialist ancient Romans.
San Diego County voters did not educate themselves before voting for Supreme Court Judge. The San Diego Bar Association published evidence that Kreep "Does not have the qualifications to perform as a Judge" and of course partisan voters saw evidence that traditional Republicans supporting Mr. Peed in the election and voted the other direction without knowing what they were doing. Partisan politics resolves nothing and neither does education. Voters do not apply their education to anything directly affecting their lives.
This is clearly a failure of the press, or a symptom of an emasculated newsroom, which doesn't have the resources to cover real news.
If you spent time in California you would understand how that could happen.
Koch brother racism dominates the politics in California, so most people switch to another station when someone tries to explain something.
The Koch brothers convinced California voted to outlaw drivers licences for immigrants about 10 years ago and police started stealing cars from immigrants after Bush authorized racial profiling because they don't have a drivers license.
Then California residents were shocked after about half a million immigrants abandoned their dwellings and collapsed the real estate market.
Who could have seen that coming?
I think we just made a case for why local news is important, and that newspapers are more valuable than TV. I feel (hope?) that a local newspaper would have dug deeper into each of the candidates and more people would have realized that the creep Kreep was a birther who had apparently gone around the bend. Instead, people get their local news (if at all) from TV, where it is more important to scare the pants off of everyone about some new lurking menace that will kill all of us that is so important you have to wait 21 minutes to see, rather than do actual reporting that would inform the public about something that will actually impact their lives.
Mkelm:
I would generally agree with you as to the valuable service local newspapers should be providing (and, in some cases, still do). More people should be reading newspapers (and just reading more, overall). That said, it's worth repeating:
So... no Pulitzer for them, I guess.
:-(
Local San Diego news did absolutely no reporting on this particular subject of Supreme Court Judge. They report daily murders, rapes, diappearances and WEATHER! Because it directly affects the greatest portion of its economy...TOURISM!
BUT...there are lifelong residents of San Diego who have a history here but not a grasp of how to vote their best interests. Partisanship is like being Bipolar. Skills of manipulation replace sensibile self interest.
He is very aptly named!
All that comes to mind is . . . In a Democracy, The People Get The Government They Deserve. Whoever said it, it's still soooo true!
And Splain to me why anyone votes "early" if it means you vote without being informed? And one last question - are there no interwebs in San Diego?
Joe...not ALL PEOPLE know how to use the internet to research let alone what is a legitimate resource of knowledge. The majority use the internet to complain, moan and groan as opposed to it being a tool for information and fact finding.
They forgot to mention that San Diego County has the best weather and the dumbest voters in California. It's long been a well-known fact, and explains things like Randy Duke Cunningham and Darryl IssaA$$wipe.
And for those of you who think "Why didn't the local newspaper cover this?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/business/media/san-diego-union-tribune-open-about-its-pro-business-motives.html
Well, that does explain a lot. Thanks for the link!
:-(
Yep, San Diego! Nice place to visit but don't move there, the place makes you stupid!
Many Europeans say the same thing about that part of North America between Mexico and Canada.
Oops.
Can't help to be going around with the Peed. Jeez...
Then again, the birther guy has the name Kreep. What's going on down there?
Anyone who has dealt with the San Diego courts soon learns that most of the judges here have a pro-business agenda, having come from a corporate-defense law career in some very large firm. The merits of your case have no significance, and who your attorney knows matters most of all. We have the biggest small-town legal system around; Boss Hogg for 4 million. Unfortunately Kreep will fit right in. His pre-election robo-calls claimed that Judge Peed coddled criminals, which is probably why a lot of people voted for him. Rarely do any judges on the ballot campaign, or even submit a candidate's statement to tell you what they believe in. The fact that this one did probably gave his name some significance in the voting booth. I usually don't vote on judges at all because there's no way of knowing what kind of person they are.
I was just going to say that I wonder if Kreep did some campaigning to get name recognition - since I don't have a home phone I didn't receive any calls. Thanks for sharing that.
Do have to wonder why the Peed group didn't do at least one round of "hello! he's a birther!" advertising.
I davis...true. However there are no regulations in San Diego on what election qualification statement one uses. Hence Kreep misrepresented himself by placing next to name "Constitutional Law Attorney" as his qualification statement. When voters saw that, they ASSUMED he was qualified for the position when in fact he was a Constitutional Law Professor with little to no trial experience.
And the fact he is not indeed a Constitutional Law Professor but a Family Law Attorney. And from testimony from someone on this thread a crappy Family Law Attorney.
Hey now - let's step away from the San Diego bashing from places outside of here shall we? I'm sure that NO OTHER place in the country has an elected politician who embarrasses them right? RIGHT?!
:-)
OK - now as a So cal native and San Diego voter my entire adult life (and yet somehow not stupid Trollop!) - I can tell you that our local newspaper and TV news are appallingly bad. The U-T paper wasn't so horrid (editorial board came out on the right side of Prop 8 in 2008) until it was just this past year purchased by the Manchester cabal of right wing power.
And our TV news? Well, there is a reason Anchorman is set down here ;-)
It was a judicial race - nearly every one I know who is NOT as politically engaged as I am probably flipped a coin over it. Or they passed over it entirely. Frankly, the only reason I knew who to vote for is because I follow someone on twitter who linked to a Kreep article about the birther nonsense about a week before I mailed in the two ballots from my house.
Sigh....trust me - I am beyond irritated about this - but I don't necessarily blame stupidity as I do an utter lack of information on a classic way down the ballot race that no one was talking about before hand.
Christina -
I can appreciate your sensitivity on this point, and have tried to refrain from bashing the voters for the outcome of this election, however Kreepy. After all, I hail from a town where we once elected a dead man to office (and Rape-Public-CON canards notwithstanding, it was NOT because the dead were voting)!
Philadelphia Voters Elect Dead Man
;-)
Sorry Christina, I spent my "youth" there and I have nothing but fond memories as is obvious..
The People of San Diego will reap what the soew.
If I find myself in the position of "unsure" or "don't know" when voting, I leave it blank. I was told this does not negate all other votes on the ballot.
And money talks...'gosh we just didn't KNOW!'
I watch as people admit they vote and don't bother to find out who they are voting for. Americans are the facing the test of the big lie being told over and over again. Big money will be trying to steal your democracy I hope people in San Diego will take some time to find out the facts before they cast the next ballot. I am truly glad to live in Canada.
Alot of people dont pay attention to judges races. Look at his comment on the recount, " with a lead that big".... 500 votes, how many even voted for that judge's spot? 4,000?
the sad thing is local politics mean more than federal in many instances. These people are as stupid as Michiganders who are now ruled by 'managers' of the state, literally doing anything they want.
Oooops, there goes another neighborhood.
America, Land of the Bought (Wisconsin) and the Crazies.
Being from the area, the only thing you need to get elected is the (R) after your name, after that it's a done deal. "The thing you gotta remember is" san diego has given you brian bilbray (congressman who dosen't live within 50 miles of his district), randy cunningham (congressman who dosen't know bribe etiquette) rodger hedgecock (rush dirtbag's head suckass) duncan hunter jr. (congressman who changed his name to his father's to fool the village idiot's) damndest thing, it worked!!!, he also claims to be a 20 year veteran of the Marine Corps, however he never left the county during his military "career", thanks dad, now we have daryl issa, this guy needs to have someone get his Grand Jury records unsealed so we can see to what extent he is involved with providing the Tijuana Drug Cartel with vehicles, good sources tell me he is responsible for half of the stolen vehicles down there, also to explain how every time he puts up a building (laundering money?), the state decides to build an off-ramp that leads right into the parking lot.....
Wait, this is a real story? I thought it was the Onion. Kreep, Peed, and sentences like " they decided on Peed because Kreep seemed to them like the wrong brand of mainstream"
Surely it's a joke. Surely, if the man's name is really "Peed", you wouldn't use any form of the word "stream" in the same sentence?
Young Kenyan birthers sing to Obama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFVUf_wCSaw
...