Frye to DeMaio: Stop invoking my name

Former San Diego City Councilwoman Donna Frye expressed anger Wednesday that Carl DeMaio has mentioned her name in his campaign as the Republican challenger to Rep. Scott Peters focused on a jobs plan.

It was another day of multiple developments in the bruising race for San Diego’s 52nd Congressional District seat, including massive new spending for Peters and a fresh U.S. Chamber of Commerce ad on his behalf.

Frye, a prominent former San Diego City Council member and Democrat, asked DeMaio not to mention her any more, saying she does not support nor trust him.

“I don’t want him to get any votes using my name,” Frye said at a news conference at Peters’ campaign headquarters, a session she says she called for. “Don’t use my name, Mr. DeMaio. Stop it.”

DeMaio has invoked Frye a couple of times in the campaign, including during a televised debate. In one case he said that shortly after joining the City Council in 2008 he reached across the political aisle to work with her on open government issues.

But Frye said working with DeMaio soon became “an effort in futility and frustration.”

Shortly after Frye finished, DeMaio conducted a news conference where he added some specifics to an earlier announced jobs plan.

Those included a 24-month relief provision to return domestic company profits now held in banks offshore back to the United States for reinvestment in exchange for a lower corporate tax rate. The money would have to be spent on expanding manufacturing, worker training and research and development.

He’s also proposing a three-year, cost-benefit evaluation on major rules promulgated by the federal government.

He later compared his session and Frye’s during a discussion with U-T San Diego that included several attempts to get him to respond directly to her comments.

“I’m focusing on job creation and issues San Diegans care about and Mr. Peters is running a smear campaign,” he said. “When I have the opportunity to comment, it is on how we create jobs and other important programs. The circus atmosphere of politics has not been my focus and won’t be.”

As the campaign enters its final days, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has added $265,000 to the nearly $500,000 it had already allocated for the final week. The money is being spent on ads and other efforts aimed at opposing DeMaio.

In response, DeMaio appealed for contributions.

“Today is the last day we can pay for ads,” DeMaio wrote in an email message Tuesday. “We have a TOSS-UP race here, and every bit counts!”

The race has generated more than $10 million in spending.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also announced Wednesday it’s airing a new television ad for Peters. The spot attacks DeMaio’s 2008-12 council record and praises Peters for efforts to repeal a medical device tax included in the Affordable Care Act. The national chamber group endorsed Peters in September.

In another development, the high-tech San Diego group Biocom announced Peters is its 2014 “Elected Official of the Year” for his advocacy of the biotechnology and life science industries and their legislative goals. Listed among those presenting the award on Thursday is San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce CEO and former Mayor Jerry Sanders, a Republican. Sanders has not endorsed either candidate.

DeMaio and Peters have a final debate scheduled to be broadcast live on KUSI television 9-10 p.m. Thursday.

The latest U-T/10News poll has the race essentially a dead heat, a finding in keeping with previous polls.