Residents of El Cajon will choose their next mayor on November 3rd and the candidates seem like they couldn’t be more polar opposites.
First we have Bill Wells who has been mayor of the city for about 13 years and who has often taken up the MAGA mantle of responsibility against the state’s Democrats, including suing the state over its sanctuary laws and pushing for a resolution for the city’s police to cooperate with ICE.
Then we have Alexander Kraft, a labor organizer and socialist who wants to inspire workers to rise up against the oppression of capitalism.
As opposed as they may seem, in my recent talks with each, I found Wells and Kraft do share some similarities. For instance, they both took issue with my line of questioning, and specifically that I questioned them about some of their more extreme views (although neither would characterize them as such). They also both excused their extreme views by claiming that they weren’t relevant to voters since the job of the mayor is mundane and typically deals with things like fixing city streets and making sure parks are clean.
Either way, let’s get into their irrational beliefs and let voters decide whether they find them relevant.
Wells’ Conspiracies, Misinformation, and MAGA Blindspot
Starting with Wells, the mayor stated that he wants to continue to prioritize public safety, maintaining infrastructure, and protecting the city’s fiscal health. Wells touted that under his leadership, the city has accumulated a healthy reserve fund, which contrasts nicely against the many other cities in California facing deficits.
While maintaining a budget reserve is great, some of the mayor’s other activities are concerning. Wells also often promotes Trumpian conspiracies about Democrat-led election fraud, and promotes divisive misinformation.
I asked him about an Instagram post of his captioned “California Dems Rigging Elections?”, where he seemed to suggest on a talk-show that Democrats may be rigging the elections against gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton.
According to Wells, “you have to be naive to not think there’s election fraud happening,” although when I asked if he had seen concrete evidence of significant voter fraud, he did not provide any that would suggest that Democrats are rigging the election against Hilton.
He had similar trouble defending his social media posts that falsely claimed that the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights had used taxpayer funds to pay people to protest. According to him, he couldn’t remember his February 24th post alleging as much.
Wells doesn’t just repost misinformation, he’s sometimes the original source of the misinformation, which is then shared by others. For instance, Mayor Wells has also previously claimed that anti-ICE protesters were being paid up to $120,000 by George Soros to protest – a ridiculous sum and the only source that I was able to find for this was Wells himself.
With Mayor Wells finding so much fraud in Democrat-led causes, I wondered what he thought about the vast number of fraud and corruption allegations against the Trump administration. Unfortunately, he seemed to have not even heard of any of them, replying, “What allegations of corruption?” I cited the alleged sale of pardons and federal contracts that benefit the Trump family but he was skeptical. “I honestly couldn’t speak about the corruption charges. I’ve not been convinced of any corruption. But, you know, perhaps that’s the case.”
Kraft’s Marxist Utopia
Moving on to his opponent, Kraft lived up to his socialist label in laying out his policy agenda. He told me that he would like to impose a tax on certain out-of-state landlords, that he would like the city to invest heavily in social housing and make it so that El Cajon projects can only be bid on by unionized labor.
While he is endorsed by the San Diego chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and a self-described socialist, he grew increasingly visibly irritated as I asked about his socialist policies and views. I asked him about whether his view involved capitalism with a strong social safety net (a la Scandinavian countries) or more drastically, ending capitalism.
I asked him a variation of this question three times while he complained about its relevance and downplayed the radical nature of his views, stating, “apparently it’s extreme to strive for a better society.” He spoke generally about being a “real socialist” and about “an end to capitalist exploitation of workers” and “prioritizing the needs of working people.”
When asked to expand on what all of this ultimately meant, his frustration grew so much that he compared me to Senator Joseph McCarthy who was a leading figure in the 1950s communist paranoia that led to unjust political persecutions. Specifically, a speech where he famously waved a piece of paper that he alleged contained the names of 205 communist infiltrators within the US State Department, fueling the hysteria of the “Red Scare.”
“You want to know if I am or ever have been a member of the Communist Party? Do you have an envelope full of forty five names? I mean, what?” he asked as he mimed waving something in the air.
“No, no. It’s just like, is that your vision? An end to capitalism?” I asked.
Finally, he answered, “Yeah, ultimately.” If desiring the end of capitalism isn’t extreme then I don’t know what is.
Either way, it’s unfortunate that Kraft became so frustrated about having to expand on his views that he insulted me by comparing me to a vile politician who ruined the lives and careers of many innocent people.
Do Their Extreme Views Matter to Voters?
Both candidates objected to being questioned in these ways, claiming that their views on these matters are irrelevant to running El Cajon.
So why would residents of El Cajon care about whether Kraft wants to bring about the end of capitalism or that Wells is a devout MAGA warrior who sows division by creating and spreading misinformation?
Perhaps they won’t care. Or perhaps with Kraft, voters just want to be sure that their mayor isn’t looking at every municipal decision as a means to advance the goals of their socialist revolution instead of their immediate interests. With Wells, perhaps voters might not be so keen to have a mayor that appears to prioritize his personal crusade against their immigrant neighbors and seems to have no problem spreading divisive falsehoods that he cannot substantiate.
I’ll leave it to residents of the city to decide for themselves how much they care about such things. Good luck El Cajon.
Rafael Perez is a columnist for the Southern California News Group. Write to him at rafaelperezocregister@gmail.com