When Bob Filner was sworn in as the 35th mayor of San Diego in December 2012, it felt like the ground was shifting. For the first time in twenty years, a Democrat held the keys to City Hall. He was a civil rights activist, a former Freedom Rider who had spent time in a Mississippi jail in the 60s, and a ten-term congressman. People expected a progressive revolution.
Nine months later, he was gone.
The story of Bob Filner San Diego isn't just about a politician who lost his job. It’s a messy, fast-moving collapse that basically rewrote the rules for how San Diego handles its elected officials. Even now, after his death in April 2025 at the age of 82, the fallout of that summer in 2013 still feels weirdly fresh in the local political scene.
The Rapid Descent of a Political Powerhouse
The trouble didn't start with a slow burn; it was more like a sudden explosion. On July 11, 2013, a group of Filner’s former allies—people like former Councilwoman Donna Frye and attorneys Cory Briggs and Marco Gonzalez—held a press conference that stopped the city in its tracks. They didn't just criticize his policy. They told him he had to resign immediately.
Why? Because of how he treated women.
What followed was a literal parade of accusations. Within weeks, nearly 20 women came forward. The details were, honestly, pretty grim. His communications director, Irene McCormack Jackson, was the first to file a lawsuit. She described being put in what people started calling the "Filner headlock." She claimed he whispered lewd comments, told her she should work without panties, and generally treated her like a "sexual ragdoll."
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It didn't stop with staff.
- Katherine Ragazzino, a wounded Marine veteran, said Filner tried to trade his help for her benefits for sexual favors.
- Stacie McKenzie, a city parks employee, alleged he harassed her while she was working at a city event.
- Peggy Shannon, an 81-year-old grandmother who worked at a City Hall info desk, said he made inappropriate comments and requested dates.
The Fight to Stay in Power
Filner didn't go quietly. He was always a scrapper—his colleagues in Congress knew him as a "combative" guy who fought for veterans. He brought that same energy to his own defense. At first, he admitted he needed help but flatly refused to quit. He even checked into a behavioral counseling clinic for two weeks, hoping that would settle the noise.
It didn't.
While he was "in rehab," the city was basically in a state of paralysis. The City Attorney at the time, Jan Goldsmith, became Filner’s primary antagonist. They fought over everything: legal fees, city business, and who actually had the power to sign checks. The San Diego City Council eventually voted to sue Filner to make him pay for his own legal defense in the sexual harassment cases.
By August, a recall effort was in full swing. Volunteers were on every corner with clipboards. The Democratic Party, which had spent years trying to get a mayor into office, officially turned its back on him. You’ve got to realize how rare that is—a party cannibalizing its biggest winner less than a year after a historic victory.
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The Resignation and the Guilty Plea
On August 23, 2013, Filner finally cracked. He announced his resignation as part of a complex deal where the city agreed to pay for some of his legal defense and help settle the lawsuits. But he wasn't humble about it. In his farewell speech, he called the whole thing a "lynch mob." He insisted there was no proof of the allegations, even as he was walking out the door.
The "no proof" argument didn't last long.
In October 2013, he pleaded guilty to state charges of felony false imprisonment and two misdemeanor counts of battery. These weren't just "political mistakes"—they were crimes. He was sentenced to three months of house arrest and three years of probation. He also had to give up his pension for the time he served as mayor.
The financial cost to San Diego taxpayers was massive. Between settlements for Irene McCormack Jackson, Benelia Santos-Hunter, and others, the city paid out over $1.1 million.
The Complicated Legacy of Bob Filner San Diego
You can't talk about Filner without acknowledging the two versions of the man. On one hand, you have the civil rights champion. He genuinely cared about Filipino veterans from World War II, securing them $198 million in benefits that had been denied for decades. He was a founding member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He wanted to shift San Diego’s focus away from big developers and toward "neglected neighborhoods."
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But that legacy is permanently stained.
The "Filner era" led to a massive change in how the city is run. Before this scandal, San Diego had no real way to remove a mayor who wasn't doing their job. Voters eventually passed a ballot measure to fix that, creating a clear process for ousting elected officials convicted of crimes. It basically "Filner-proofed" the City Charter.
Key Takeaways for San Diego Residents
If you're looking at the history of Bob Filner San Diego, here is what actually matters today:
- Vetting is everything. The scandal showed that many people in the political world knew about Filner's "temperament" and behavior for years, but it was overlooked because he was a winning candidate.
- Structural Power Matters. The City Attorney’s office gained significant influence during this era as a check on the Mayor’s office.
- The #MeToo Precursor. Many historians now view the Filner scandal as a watershed moment that happened years before the national #MeToo movement. It proved that women coming together could take down a powerful man in a major city.
Moving Forward
Bob Filner lived out his final years in relative obscurity, mostly in the Los Angeles area, before passing away in a care facility. He rarely gave interviews, and when he did, he often sounded like the same defiant guy he was in 2013.
For the city, the lesson was clear: policy wins don't excuse personal misconduct. San Diego's political landscape is much more focused on transparency now, though the scars of that chaotic summer remain. If you're interested in how San Diego has changed since then, you might want to look into the 2016 Charter amendments that finally gave the City Council the teeth they lacked during the Filner crisis.
The next step for anyone interested in local governance is to review the current City of San Diego Ethics Commission guidelines. These rules were significantly tightened following the 2013 scandal to ensure that a "power vacuum" like the one seen during Filner's final weeks never happens again. You can also research the Recall Process changes in the San Diego Municipal Code to see exactly how the city simplified the path for citizens to hold leaders accountable.