BILBRAY BLASTS GROWING INFLUENCE OF OUTSIDE MONEY
Brian Bilbray, a former Imperial Beach mayor, San Diego County supervisor and U.S. Congressman, is criticizing the growing inf luence of outside money in Imperial Beach elections and he scolded elected officials for not doing anything about it.
Imperial Beach is one of four cities in San Diego County without campaign contribution limits.
Bilbray specifically criticized the fact that several labor unions have contributed $85,000 to the campaign of Matthew Leyba-Gonzalez, a candidate for the District 4 seat on the Imperial Beach City Council.
“We’re having an organized takeover by outside money coming in and buying our council seats,” Bilbray said Sunday during a meetand-greet with several conservative City Council candidates running in Imperial Beach.
Leyba-Gonzalez has worked in labor for nearly two decades. He started pouring concrete, became foreman, and is now a labor relations representative with LIUNA Local-89.
He previously told The San Diego Union-Tribune that he doesn’t see a problem with getting money from labor because he has been involved with them for years.
“I’ve worked for the organization and the organization believes in me enough to support me and put the money in the campaign,” he said. “It’s an organization that I’ve been a part of for 18 years. I take pride in that.”
His opponent, Will Nimmo, has also criticized the large amount of contributions going to the Leyba-Gonzalez campaign. Nimmo attended the same event as Bilbray and Congressional candidate, Republican Juan Hidalgo.
“Outside influence has no place in I.B.,” Nimmo said.
On Sunday, Bilbray also criticized Imperial Beach’s mayor and City Council for failing to enact campaign contribution limits.
National City passed some reform earlier this year – limiting donations from individuals, businesses, labor unions and political parties.
But those reforms won’t go into effect until January 2021.
“Coronado has a $200 limit, they are a city of our size,” Bilbray said. “San Diego has its limits. The county of San Diego, which is at 3.5 million people, have a limit of $800. What has Dedina and his Council done?”
Both Mayor Serge Dedina and Councilman Mark West, who is currently running for re-election, say they support campaign finance reform.
Part of the reason it didn’t get done, West and Dedina said, was because the council was focused on other issues like addressing cross-border sewage f lows, drafting a recreational marijuana ordinance, establishing district elections, and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dedina said he’d like to build a coalition to look into contribution limits as well as term limits.
The issue of campaign finance reform and also term limits is important,” he said. “I’d definitely like to look at that.”
Other than Imperial Beach, the cities of Carlsbad, El Cajon and Oceanside are the only cities in the county that do not have contribution limits.
Bilbray, a Republican, was elected to the Imperial Beach City Council in 1976, became mayor in 1978, and County Supervisor in 1985. He was elected to Congress as a Republican from 1995 to 2001 and again from 2006 to 2013.
His first congressional campaign in 1995 raised $406,000. During his last race in 2012, Bilbray raised $1.1 million.
Between 2000 and 2006, Bilbray was voted out of Congress and became a lobbyist.
According to Politico, Bilbray collected $785,000 in lobbying fees during that time.
Bilbray lobbied against illegal immigration for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
The nonprofit advocates against legal and illegal immigration and believes that “reducing legal immigration levels from well over one million at present to a very generous 300,000 a year over a sustained period will allow America to manage growth, address environmental concerns, and maintain a high quality of life,” according to its website.