by Rex Wockner
U.S. NEWS
The June 2012 election for mayor of San Diego, America's eighth-largest city, could have three openly gay/lesbian candidates.
Republican District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and Republican City Councilman Carl DeMaio already have filed papers, and Democratic state Sen. Christine Kehoe is expected to file shortly.
Kehoe, as the only Democrat in the group, probably would garner the most support from the city's LGBT activists.
Dumanis took immediate fire from local Democratic gay leaders as she announced her candidacy March 10, with the predominantly gay San Diego Democratic Club accusing her of being more loyal to the GOP than to her fellow LGBTs.
The club said that in last year's statewide elections, Dumanis supported Republican candidates for governor and attorney general who vowed to reverse the state's policy of refusing to defend Proposition 8 in court. Those candidates lost, and Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris have continued the nondefense policy. (Six days later, the SDDC corrected its statement, saying that Dumanis had remained neutral in the attorney general race.)
"Although I consider Bonnie a friend and believe she has been an effective judge and district attorney, there are significant policy issues where progressives disagree with her," said SDDC President Doug Case. "Her loyalty appears to rest more with the Republican Party than the LGBT community as witnessed by some of her endorsements."
Prop 8, passed by voters in November 2008, amended the California Constitution to re-ban same-sex marriage. It was later struck down as unconstitutional by a federal judge in San Francisco. That decision is now on appeal at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
