Soros Pulls Funding for Genevieve Jones-Wright

Going into Memorial Day weekend, Genevieve Jones-Wright had the wind at her back for the San Diego County District Attorney’s race. As California Globe had previously reported, that wind was created by the fluttering of a million dollars dropped off by leftist billionaire George Soros at local TV stations for an ad buy supporting Jones-Wright’s candidacy.

This morning Soros pulled his money and San Diego TV stations are a million dollars poorer for it. One would assume Jones-Wright is not too excited about it either.

While writing Genevieve Jones-Wright’s political obituary is about seven days premature for a June 5^th election, the sudden departure of the Soros money is an ominous first chapter.

It’s not that Jones-Wright is without money. She has nearly $37,000 in her campaign account. Get out the Vote San Diego has about $3,000 to spend on her race. Justice San Diego spent $50,000 last week on an independent expenditure for digital ads supporting Jones-Wright in the D.A. race. Justice San Diego, funded by Oakland real estate mogul Quinn Delaney, has $100,000 more in the account.

It is currently unclear if Jones-Wright’s other out of town money will follow Soros.

The San Diego Labor Council has spent about $20,000 to promote Jones-Wright, and filings don’t show much additional support on hand.

But she no longer has the kind of money on her side that can swamp an opponent.

And money is not Jones-Wright’s only problem.

There is an old adage in politics: You have to ride the horse in the direction it is going. It means that you might be able to shift public opinion a bit to the left or a bit to the right, but it is very difficult to make the galloping horse of public opinion run backwards.

Jones-Wright may not have heard that adage.

In an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune, she says she “just wouldn’t enforce what we call the quality of life offenses.”

San Diego is a quality of life city. People move here because of the perfect climate, natural beauty and access to outdoor activities. They pay a premium in taxes and cost of living to be here. Whatever Jones-Wright may be trying to accomplish with this policy, her messaging is not serving her. San Diego voters don’t want to hear that their elected officials aren’t concerned with their quality of life.

FBI stats define San Diego as a hub of sex trafficking. A study by Point Loma Nazarene University shows sex trafficking to be San Diego’s second largest underground economy after drugs.

San Diego has now become a hub for fighting sex trafficking. Jones-Wright’s declaration that “you can’t legislate morality” flies in the face of the images San Diegans have seen on TV of ex-Navy Seals rescuing underage girls being exploited by traffickers.

With a million bucks at her back, Jones-Wright may have been able to win despite a poorly messaged campaign. A million dollars on TV in the closing days of an election covers a lot of sins.

That being said, there is another old adage in campaign politics: don’t go dark on TV the week before election day. If Jones-Wright hasn’t heard that one, she is about to come to understand it very well.