Sierra Club Says It Won’t Endorse in ‘Uncontested’ Mayoral Election

Calling this year’s race for mayor of San Diego “uncontested,” the local chapter of the Sierra Club said Monday that it will not endorse a candidate.

Leaders of the nearly 13,000-member organization said that Mayor Maureen O’Connor has sided with them on many important environmental issues, but that it is not worthwhile to devote time to researching an endorsement because they feel O’Connor is ensured of victory in the mayoral primary June 7.

The organization will not make endorsements in this year’s races for the county Board of Supervisors either.

“It doesn’t make any sense for us to go through our whole process in a non-contested election,” Ron Ottinger, chairman of the Sierra Club committee on political education, said in a morning news conference outside City Hall.

“The club has to choose appropriate forums in which to push its positions.” It is clear, Ottinger said, that O’Connor is going to win. “The appropriate forum is to sit down with the mayor.”

Ottinger said a remark in Sunday’s San Diego Union attributed to Sierra Club conservation coordinator Barbara Bamberger does not represent the organization’s official position on endorsements, which can only come from its political education group.

Bamberger was quoted as saying: “We’re not going to endorse Maureen because she hasn’t done anything on growth management, and we’re not going to endorse Floyd (Morrow) because, what would that get us?”

The Sierra Club announcement was met with disappointment from an aide to mayoral candidate Floyd Morrow, a former three-term council member considered to have the best chance against O’Connor. Three other minor candidates are on the primary ballot.

Morrow’s campaign coordinator, Gary Sheler, said Morrow is “more than mildly surprised that the Sierra Club would be gulled into believing that there is no contest for the office.”

In a letter to the Sierra Club, Morrow states: “I’m surprised that the Sierra Club would give up voting its conscience, knowing me as the candidate who clearly carries your banner into the election.”

Considered a strong political force in local elections, the Sierra Club endorsed O’Connor in her successful 1986 mayoral runoff against Bill Cleator but did not endorse her in 1983 against Roger Hedgecock.