1998-08-27 Political jockeying at Del Mar races |
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By Donald H. Harrison Del Mar, CA (special) -- Before betting on the horses at the Del Mar Racetrack, members of the American Jewish Committee's L3 young professional group received some advice on how they can jockey for positions of influence in the neighboring City of San Diego's political structure.
"There are lots of boards and commissions in the city and the county which need people," he added. "There are library boards, all kinds of planning boards; it just is not difficult to get involved if you want to." Wolfsheimer, an attorney, had served at various times in his career as chairman of the San Diego City Planning Commission, a member of the San Diego Port Commission, and an alternate member of the state Coastal Commission before being appointed to the Del Mar Fair Board. Although a Republican, Wolfsheimer said he got started in politics during the 1960s by contributing to the campaign of a Democrat running in a non partisan San Diego City Council race. Floyd Morrow, who once had been a colleague of Wolfsheimer's in the San Diego City Attorney's Office, went on to win the race. When a vacancy occurred on the City Planning Commission, Morrow asked Wolfsheimer if he would like to fill it. "I talked with my partner (in private law practice, Jim Milch) and he said that was a good idea, so I went on the planning commission," recalled the attorney, who today, along with Milch, specializes in land use cases. Shortly after Pete Wilson was elected as mayor of San Diego in 1971, he tapped Wolfsheimer for the planning commission's chairmanship. Wilson (who would go on to a career as a United States senator and governor of California) had been a law school classmate of Wolfsheimer's partner, Jim Milch. "I was the chair (of the Planning Commission) from about '71 to '80, which was the great growth spurt of this community," Wolfsheimer said. "When my term expired, he (Wilson) sent me over to the Port Commission as one of San Diego's representatives on the Port and I served there for 10 years until 1989. "I am happy to say that the convention center...has my name on it. It's not named after me, but my name is on a plaque because I was chairman when it was dedicated." Wolfsheimer's current assignment is "a position that a lot of the socialites in town like to have because they get a huge box (overlooking the race track), and they get to go to the fair, and so I decided I probably should do that," Wolfsheimer said. "I was appointed six years ago as one of the nine members of the board of directors, which owns this racetrack. The board puts on the fair, the ninth largest in America, with over 1.5 million people coming to the fair every year," he said. Also the board operates the race track which he described as being "one of the two prime summer race tracks" in the world. He identified Saratoga, New York, as the other one. "We have the finest jockeys, largest purses, largest on-track betting, and largest on-track attendance of all the major tracks," he said. "We have double the amount of people, more than double, coming here than to Santa Anita in Los Angeles or to Hollywood Park.
Wolfsheimer's ex-wife (and mother of Marc Wolfsheimer) is former San
Diego City Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer Stutz, whose parents Irving and
Cecile Salomon had been major philanthropists in San Diego.
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