Former Rep. Darrell Issa Running for Congress in California’s 50th District
Other Republicans dropped out to throw their support behind the former Congressman
Former Congressman Darrell Issa officially tossed his hat into the 2020 ring Thursday.
Issa served as a Congressman from 2001 to 2019 where he eventually became Chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.
Rep. Duncan Hunter currently represents California’s 50th district. Hunter and his wife were recently indicted for “charges including conspiracy, wire fraud, and violating campaign finance laws,” reports the WaEx:
Issa is now running against Hunter in a military-heavy district that encompasses the central and northeastern parts of San Diego County. Under California’s election rules, the top two vote-getters face off against each other no matter what party. So, a Republican-on-Republican fight is realistic in the 50th District, where the GOP has an 11-point voter registration edge.
In August 2018, Hunter and his wife were indicted on charges including conspiracy, wire fraud, and violating campaign finance laws. In June, his wife pleaded guilty to corruption and named him as a co-conspirator in using campaign funds for personal expenses. His trial begins in February 2020, weeks ahead of the March primary.
Issa’s announcement prompted other Republican candidates to bow out and throw their support behind the former Congressman. From the Times of San Diego:
Issa, 65, held a morning news conference to announce the launch of his campaign and was joined by El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells, Temecula Mayor Matt Rahn, former Escondido Mayor Sam Abed and former U.S. Navy SEAL Larry Wilske, who were all running for the seat before the announcement.
All four candidates elected to drop out of the race and throw their support behind Issa, who also received an endorsement from San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob.
The race also includes former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio and state Sen. Brian Jones.
Issa declined a re-election run in the 49th District in 2018 after winning his 2016 bid by less than one percentage point. Last September, President Donald Trump nominated him to be the director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, but his Senate confirmation process has remained stalled since then.
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Comments
I guess this means his nomination to work in the administration got killed.
It will be nice to have a few sane members of the House from California.
Issa? He’s a NeverTrumper. He is running against the son of a true American patriot. If you are going to hate California, at least get your facts straight. Issa is POISON!!!
I don’t know if that is true but bottom line is he can win against the wacked-out Dem candidate. He’s not going to vote against border security or many other sane proposals. Choose your poison, as they say.
He was one of the scores of House Republicans who QUIT the fight just when our cause needed him. Now he wants to get in?
Pasadena Phil Rule: “I never EVER vote for Democrats or liberals, ESPECIALLY when they run as Republicans.”
Issa is like McCain. He lies low, spouts conservative opinions until when it counts, at the goal line. Then he becomes one of the guys who snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. Issa s WORSE than a Democrat. He is a star of the kabuki theater and wants to get back in.
I wonder how badly vote harvesting will affect this race and if there’s a chance to get back the four stolen lost in 2018.
Grr. I thought I used the code for strike over. Sorry.
I don’t think <s> works here. If it does,
this should be struck out.Oh, it does work. In that case you must have mistyped something. Easy to do.
Probably a typo. When in a high school typing class, I was clocked at 110 errors per minute.
There’s nothing wrong with vote harvesting per se; the problem with allowing it is that it can very easily serve as cover for fraud. I know of no evidence at all that the Democrat vote harvesting was not 100% honest; my suspicion that it wasn’t is based entirely on the fact that they are Democrats, and fraud is what they do. If they have an opportunity for fraud how could they resist it? But that’s not knowledge, it’s prejudice, however well-founded. It is entirely possible that this time they didn’t cheat, and the only reason they got such a great benefit from vote harvesting is simply that they did it and the Republicans foolishly didn’t. In that case that benefit should disappear once the Republicans do it too. Which they had better do, or they deserve to lose.
I live in the District and gave $ to DD Hunter. He’s toast. Embarrassed us even if he represented our issues. Issa is the big foot that we can accept. Carl DeMaio is not. Brian Jones is 2nd
Issa is a swamp clown. All talk, no action just like Gowdy.
Why isolate Issa? You could easily throw a dart at a list of D and R elected class people in DC and use that name in a cut/paste.
He’s a tad better than the usual GOP backstabbing scum like mccain or romney or mcconnell.
Who knows – maybe he’s grown a pair by now.
Just a related observation – for whatever reason Republicans at both the state and federal level in the most Democrat rigged states tend to be more skeevy than the rest of the GOP field. It’s true in MA and RI and NY, for example. I guess you have to be one of them to beat one of them in Dem dominated places. Duncan Hunter is perhaps no exception.