Exclusive: Bryan Ziegler to run for City Council

A well-placed source tells Encinitas Undercover that County attorney and reserve deputy sheriff Bryan Ziegler will run for city council a second time.

We weren't impressed by Ziegler's 2012 run, where he showed himself to be badly misinformed about pensions, and came in a distant 7th place.  But both the candidate and the electoral landscape have changed. After his 2012 defeat, Ziegler publicly campaigned for Prop A (as did Julie Graboi, making Catherine Blakespear the only council candidate who opposed the public's right to vote on upzoning), giving him connections to an important grassroots group.  He is also presumably better-informed and a more experienced candidate now.  More importantly, Ziegler lacked organizational support in 2012.  This year he is expected to win the endorsement and support of Republican and business-oriented groups and community leaders, making him a formidable candidate.

We expect Graboi, Blakespear, and Ziegler to be the only three serious candidates for the open council seat... but don't be surprised if a few yahoos jump in.  We had nine candidates last time, one of whom didn't even show up to the candidate forums.

A few thoughts on the council candidates so far

The Leucadia Blog has the list of candidates who have taken out (but not yet filed) papers to run for City Council.

Bryan Ziegler
Kevin Forrester
Mark Muir
Tony Kranz
Lisa Shaffer
Barbara Yost
Shoja Naimi

Here are a few initial thoughts, which I reserve the right to amend and retract.

Jerome Stocks will file unless he gets a good-ol-boy seat with good pay on a do-nothing government board.

The more yahoos who enter, the less likely the incumbents get tossed. Every unknown name added to the ballot splits the Dump Stocks vote and makes Stocks / Muir more likely to be re-elected.

Bryan Ziegler ran for Supervisor and lost badly, taking a distant 4th place, apparently with little or no campaign organization. Encinitas City Council looks like his consolation prize. He calls himself a "Tea Party Republican," but he doesn't seem to think pensions are a problem:

The employees pay for their pension just like other people pay for their 401K [WRONG - employees sometimes pay a modest amount into pensions which is almost never anywhere close to enough to cover the benefits they are guaranteed].

[...]

The County's pension is 100 percent paid for and is a model for the rest of the country. [WRONG - it's only 52.2% funded].

It would be a huge mistake to elect someone so dangerously uninformed on pensions when Encinitas' own pensions are so severely underfunded, but let's not stop there. What kind of person keeps running for elective office with little or no campaign and little or no public support? Has Ziegler ever been involved in any Encinitas civic issues? He strikes me as someone who wants to BE a Council Member for the title but doesn't have any idea or interest in DOing anything for the people of Encinitas. Read his Patch interview and see if you disagree.

Kevin Forrester is an attorney for real estate developers. He has a very good Constitutional / property rights link list, including SCOTUSblog, Volokh, and the Castle Coalition. He is an ally of Stocks-Muir-Gaspar.

Mark Muir is, well, Mark Muir. The guy who rose to the top of a demanding physical profession while morbidly obese by buttering up the right power brokers. And now a set-for-life-at-55 pension beneficiary who will receive millions of dollars from Encinitas taxpayers over his retirement.

Tony Kranz is back after losing last time to Gaspar's huge outside money campaign and that little confrontation with the Obama=Hitler guy. Kranz has a web site up and is actively involved in civic life, frequently speaking at City Council and seen at most local events. He is an ally of Teresa Barth and in opposition to Stocks-Muir-Gaspar.

Lisa Shaffer seems the most serious of the challenger candidates, with the most content on her web site and an active calendar of events. She has been active in writing commentaries in the Coast News and on Patch and speaking on good government issues at City Hall. She is a UCSD professor. She is allied with Barth and Kranz.

Barbara Yost lives in Olivenhain Village Park [but she could throw a rock to Olivenhain], doesn't have a web site up, and hasn't been active in Encinitas affairs that I know of.

Shoja Naimi is the owner of Roxy, and is involved in 101 DEMA. I do not know whether he would be allied with Stocks-Muir-Gaspar or Barth-Kranz-Shaffer.

Please correct me where I am wrong.