Frequent City Candidate Kills Himself

John Kelley, a perennial candidate who ran unsuccessfully for the San Diego mayor’s office four times, hanged himself in his apartment Sunday, police said.

Kelley, a 70-year-old semi-retired public relations official, was found dead about 7 p.m. Sunday in his Golden Hill home by a friend who had talked with him on the telephone earlier in the day and became concerned when he called back and got no answer, police said.

The San Diego County coroner’s office has ruled the death a suicide, a coroner’s spokesman said Monday.

Kelley’s unorthodox candidacy in last year’s mayoral contest--a race in which he urged campaign audiences not to vote for him, but rather to support Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s reelection--marked his fourth unsuccessful bid for the city’s top elective office since 1971.

Lost Other Campaigns

A registered independent, Kelley also lost campaigns for the San Diego City Council, Community College District trustee and California secretary of state.

Although his frequent losses caused him to be viewed as essentially a footnote in local politics, Kelley was warmly regarded by O’Connor and most other elected officials that he ran against. In large part, that warmth was a reflection of Kelley’s own soft-spoken yet colorful style and his disdain for criticizing his opponents.

During most of his races, Kelley passed out New Testaments in lieu of campaign literature and promised, if elected, to “apply Christian principles to government” and to donate one-fourth of his salary to charity.

“Politicians are geniuses when it comes to spending the public’s money, but they’re tighter than the Kalamazoo High School drum when it comes to spending their own money,” he often said.

Offbeat, Humorous Proposals

Kelley also gained a reputation for offering proposals that ranged from the offbeat to the humorous--sometimes unintentionally so--in his campaigns. In the 1987 San Diego City Council 8th District race, for example, he drew snickers at one forum when he proposed that a second major airport be built in San Diego so that Lindbergh Field “can be used just for incoming flights.”

Kelley, however, readily accepted his self-described role as “San Diego’s political comic relief,” and said he remained convinced that voters were laughing with, not at, him.

“These races can get pretty intense,” he said in announcing his 1988 mayoral campaign. “If I can get voters and the other candidates to laugh every now and then, maybe we’re all better for it.”