Businessman Steve Francis publicly declared last week that he will challenge Mayor Jerry Sanders again this year .He, along with city councilwoman Donna Frye, ran against Sanders in 2005. Frye says she is not throwing her hat into the ring this time. But, as KPBS reporter Alison St John reports, Frye says she's glad Francis has.
In 2005, Mayor Sanders positioned himself as the moderate between councilwoman Donna Frye on the left, and businessman Steve Francis on the right.
This time Sanders' lone opponent, Francis, is playing both ends of the field, painting himself as a candidate that both the right and the left can love.
Francis is trying to woo Frye supporters. In a lighthearted stunt before the big Chargers game Sunday, Francis offered a Skip Frye surfboard in a friendly wager with the mayor of Boston, over which team would win.
Frye says her husband Skip Frye had nothing to do with the wager, and she denies any knowledge of it, but she's not objecting.
Frye: And it's kind of nice. They talk about the Padres and they talk about Tony Gwynn, they think about surfing in San Diego, they think of Skip Frye, he's an icon. So it's nothing to do with politics? Absolutely not. I knew nothing about it, and neither did Skip. He's been surfing up in Rincon.
Frye says she has not endorsed either Steve Francis or Mayor Jerry Sanders, but she's glad Sanders wont go unchallenged.
Frye: So I'm glad at least Francis is raising the issues, and that way the issues will be discussed, because otherwise Jerry just doesn't talk about them. It's like I don't have to I'm not going to, now he will.
She says Francis has adopted some positions she herself has advocated, such as using redevelopment money to help pay off the ball park bonds.
However she says there are issues, like privatizing city services, where she doesn't agree with either candidate.
Alison St John, KPBS News.
