Former Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (D) says public employee unions may now be toxic to the candidates they support.

◼ The real news in the San Diego mayoral race isn't that a Republican won, but that the candidate backed by public-employee unions lost. - Willie Brown/San Francisco Chronicle

That is a real shift in California politics. And it's the second time it's happened in a big-city mayoral race in less than a year.

In San Diego on Tuesday, City Councilman Kevin Faulconer, a middle-of-the-road Republican, knocked the stuffing out of the union-backed Democrat, Councilman David Alvarez.

And he did it in part by hammering on the big union money behind Alvarez, much of which came from out of town.

In some ways it was a replay of the Los Angeles mayoral race last year, when labor's heavy backing of Wendy Greuel ultimately proved to be a liability for her in her race against Eric Garcetti....