The Night of the Living Dims begins.

The media's requested examination of the illegal votes in San Diego's mayoral election has successfully laid the groundwork for Democratic write-in candidate Donna Frye to go to court. The examination revealed that had her supporters had the sense to vote legally she would have won the election. The next step will be for Frye to request a full recount or go to court to file an election contest and seek a ruling that the illegally cast votes should be counted.

So here we go again. Once again the Dims will go to court on behalf of their dim voters in order to set aside an election. The Election Code seems pretty clear that the write-in votes are not valid. (See footnote 2 here.) But the litigation on the issue will be intense as the election is challenged by invoking democracy, ironically, by arguing that the democratically enacted electoral rules should not be followed. In the name of preventing "disenfranchisement" of voters who cast their votes illegally, the Dims will dilute the votes of those who cast their votes legally and who voted for a legal candidate.

San Diego's City Charter states that the only two candidates in a general election for mayor shall be the two front runners from the primary election. Frye didn't even bother to run in the primary but inserted herself in the general election as a third candidate. The city's municipal code, which is subordinate to the charter, permits write-in candidates in the mayoral general election. This conflict of laws was never corrected by the outgoing city attorney. (Thanks for nothing, Casey Gwinn.)

Dick Murphy has not shown himself to be much of a fighter so far but he'd better be preparing himself for the assault. In addition to challenging the legality of the write-in votes, he needs to be ready to argue that Frye's candidacy was illegal in the first place and that all of Frye's votes were illegal for that reason.

In the great horror movie, "The Night of the Living Dead," zombies attack the house all night and the people inside are helpless to escape or to fight them off. Most don't survive the night. Victory comes in the morning when the authorities arrive to attack and kill the zombies.

There's a lesson in that movie for Murphy as the Night of the Living Dims descends on San Diego. Defense is a losing strategy. Go on the offensive and attack the zombie voters who screwed things up. Challenge the legitimacy of their votes and the legitimacy of their candidate. Their looming attack is nothing less than an attack on the legitimacy of Murphy's tenure and on the legitimacy of the rules of our democracy.

Aim for their brains; it's their weak spot.

-tdr