Mayor Sanders Defends Profanity Against Francis

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 24, 2008 at 1:09 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

The race between San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and his leading opponent, businessman Steve Francis, is heating up. Sanders is defending himself for using a profanity, as he and Francis were leaving a

The race between San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and his leading opponent, businessman Steve Francis, is heating up. Sanders is defending himself for using a profanity, as he and Francis were leaving a mayoral forum last weekend. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Sanders is quite willing to admit that, instead of shaking Francis's hand as they left the podium at Balboa Park, he used the “F” word to curse his opponent. Francis says he thinks Sanders is etting angry because of the pressure of the competition.

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Francis: It was certainly unprofessional and not becoming of the mayor of a big city.

Sanders says he's had plenty of time to prove he is calm under pressure. He says he's angry because Francis's self-funded TV ads are attacking Sanders integrity.

Sanders: If a comment I made between two people offends anybody, I sincerely apologize, but I also spent 37 years building a reputation for integrity and character in San Diego County and I'm not about to let anybody tear that down without letting them know how I feel about it.

The TV ads Francis is funding with his own personal fortune attack Sanders' record as mayor. Sanders campaign won’t have the money to air TV ads until much closer to the election.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.