Poll: More San Diegans want Filner gone

A growing number of city residents believe San Diego Mayor Bob Filner should resign as his accusers come forward with new details of alleged sexual harassment, according to a U-T San Diego/10News Poll released late Wednesday.

Nearly 70 percent of San Diegans want Filner to step down, a 10-point increase since SurveyUSA asked the question about two weeks ago. The latest survey shows 87 percent of Republicans, 64 percent of independents and 62 percent of Democrats believe Filner should step down.

Of those who think he should relinquish the city’s highest office, three-quarters support recalling him if he doesn’t leave of his own volition.

“The mayor is increasingly isolated and he appears tone deaf,” said Jay Leve, the president of SurveyUSA, which conducted the poll on Tuesday. “Every day he insists on ‘due process,’ he risks becoming more impotent locally and more of an embarrassment nationally.”

The 70-year-old mayor’s remaining core supporters appear to hover between 20 percent and 30 percent, based on the answers to several of the survey’s questions, with the remainder against him or unsure as more lurid details of his alleged transgressions emerge by the day.

The city has become enveloped in turmoil since a handful of the mayor’s progressive allies earlier this month detailed charges of harassment and asked him to step aside.

This week, Filner’s former communications director, Irene McCormack Jackson, filed a lawsuit claiming she endured months of harassment. Of the people who say they’ve heard of McCormack Jackson’s accusations, 72 percent say they find them credible. Ten percent of Democrats believe her claims are not credible.

Since Monday, more women have come forward with their stories of sexual harassment by Filner.

Of those familiar with the general harassment allegations, 66 percent believe they are true and eight percent untrue. Twenty-five percent said they don’t know enough to pass judgment.

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“You could argue that’s where his core support has retreated to,” said Leve, the pollster. “Really, when you get into a he-said, she-said type of situation where in essence the mayor has acknowledged philosophical wrongdoing but says he would be cleared of practical harassment charges if given his due process, that’s an extraordinary hurdle to overcome when only 8 percent think the accusers have said something false.”

The growing chorus of detractors may embolden a nascent recall effort. The latest U-T San Diego/10News Poll shows that of the 480 respondents who think Filner should resign, more than 350 support a recall, demonstrating for the first time that such an effort has support from a majority, albeit within the margin of error. The previous poll had that figure at 44 percent.

“I think people are beginning to recognize that no matter what happens he’s not going to quit,” said Chris Crotty, a San Diego political consultant not associated with Filner. “If you take away quitting or dying, then you only have one option: a recall.”

Carl Luna, a political science professor at Mesa College, noted that previously undecided respondents are breaking toward wanting the mayor to resign or be recalled when compared to the July 12 survey. “The numbers aren’t looking good for the mayor on this,” Luna said.

The automated poll of 700 people has a margin of error of 3.5 percent. Those not reachable on landlines were shown a questionnaire via tablet or smartphone.

Filner, after issuing a general apology for his behavior, has said he believes he’ll be vindicated of any wrongdoing. Sixty percent believe the mayor needs to say more about the allegations, 32 percent say he’s said enough and 8 percent were unsure, according to the poll.

Overall support for Filner is eroding. Only 28 percent approve of the job he is doing, and his disapproval rate jumped to 64 percent from 43 percent in June. Approval of the mayor is down to 19 percent among women. His approval was at 12 percent among Republicans and 29 percent among Democrats.

A healthy majority continue to say their opinion of him has changed for the worse since Filner took office in December. Forty-five percent say the city is in worse shape and 21 percent say things are better.