Morrow Enters the Race for Mayor in Underdog Challenge to O’Connor

Saying that he refuses to allow San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor to win an uncontested reelection, former City Councilman Floyd Morrow on Wednesday announced his mayoral candidacy “to give the people a choice.”

Although Morrow, who finished third in the 1986 mayoral race behind O’Connor and then-Councilman Bill Cleator, is viewed as a heavy underdog in the June mayoral primary, he insisted that his is more than simply a protest candidacy and argued that, with adequate news media coverage of the race, he has a serious chance to defeat O’Connor.

“I know that (the press) and a few of the other power brokers in this city would like to pretend that we’re not going to have a mayor’s race,” Morrow said at a Linda Vista news conference. “I refuse to let that happen. . . . With any sort of a level playing field, with just a little bit of fairness (from the news media), there will be a race here in San Diego.”

While more than a dozen minor candidates have taken out nominating petitions in the mayoral race, Morrow, a 55-year-old lawyer, represents O’Connor’s only significant opposition in the June 7 primary.

Name Recognition

His 1965-77 service on the City Council, combined with several other unsuccessful local races, have given Morrow respectable name recognition, and his law practice provides him with the financial wherewithal to mount a credible campaign. In the special 1986 mayoral campaign necessitated by Roger Hedgecock’s forced resignation, for example, Morrow spent more than $100,000, including about $80,000 of his own money, and received 19% of the vote in his third-place finish.

Even so, most political observers--and most current polls--give Morrow little chance of preventing O’Connor from surpassing 50% of the vote in the June primary, thereby precluding the need for a November runoff. Many political consultants and others have argued that at least three major candidates had to enter the mayoral race and divide the primary vote in order for O’Connor to be held below the 50% mark, a possibility that was all but ruled out when county Supervisor Susan Golding chose not to enter the race this week.

Morrow, however, contended that he believes O’Connor is vulnerable and was sharply critical of his fellow Democrat at Wednesday’s news conference. Describing O’Connor as indecisive and lacking vision, Morrow also charged that, during her mayoralty, San Diego has become “a city operated by a few millionaires like a millionaires’ club.”

“The only real problem Maureen has is that she tries to run a city and mayor’s office with press releases, going out and getting on garbage trucks, going out to car washes, and she utilizes a New York City high-paid political campaign consultant,” Morrow said, referring in part to some of O’Connor’s public appearances. “Now, that’s not our style in San Diego, it seems to me.”

Morrow also faulted O’Connor for her unwillingness to engage in a series of campaign debates, saying that she should be willing to “come out and discuss the issues and debate me.”

“Obviously, she has to be able to debate,” Morrow said. “Otherwise, why would she expect to lead?”

Paul Downey, O’Connor’s press secretary, said that the mayor currently plans to participate in only one debate involving Morrow and all of the minor candidates expected to enter the race by today’s filing deadline. While that reflects a significant break from the tradition of numerous debates that have marked recent mayoral campaigns, Downey disputed Morrow’s contention that O’Connor’s position demonstrates a reluctance to defend her record.

“She debated Floyd about 20 times in 1986 and he’s not raised any new issues since then,” said Downey, speaking on his own time during a break from his mayoral office duties. “The mayor thinks the community would be better served if she meets with groups and talks about . . . what she’s done over the past 20 months and what she plans to do in the next four years. The mayor’s willing to run on her own record and Floyd should be willing to do the same.”

Often described as a populist, Morrow was true to that image in his “millionaires’ club” comments and in discussing, in general terms, the issues that he plans to emphasize in his campaign. He attacked the city’s plans for a $1-billion-plus sewer system that has been criticized by some as unnecessary or at least overpriced, and lamented that the San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and other utilities “are simply eating folks alive.”

“In the last two years, we’ve become the drug capital of the world, not just the United States,” Morrow added. “We run to Washington, D.C., hat in hand, begging for our own money back. We literally have to get local control back in the hands of the people.”

If the odds facing Morrow in the mayoral race appear, by conventional standards, to be insurmountable, they pale in comparison to others that he has encountered in his personal and professional life.

Hard Times as Youth

Born in a tent in Texas during the Depression, abandoned by his father and adopted at age 4 by an oil pipeline worker whose frequent job moves produced a nomadic existence, Morrow grew up to become a successful lawyer with a six-figure income, a former three-term San Diego city councilman and local Democratic Party chairman.

Undeterred by the prospect of being heavily outspent by O’Connor, Morrow notes with pride that to win his first council race in 1965, he borrowed $1,000 against his GI life insurance and, with “a lot of hustle and a little luck,” won an 11-candidate election in which “the experts picked me to finish seventh or eighth.” Overall, he has won 12 of 19 political contests, with most of his victories coming in races for seats on the San Diego County Democratic Party Central Committee.

Hopeful that he can again defy the odds, Morrow argued Wednesday that it is “unhealthy” for any incumbent to retain a public office without a challenge. And, while few political leaders view him as a major threat to O’Connor’s reelection, Morrow vowed that by the campaign’s conclusion, “the voters--and O’Connor--will know there’s been a race.”