ISSA RUNS AGAINST HUNTER: IF HE WINS HE WILL BE RANKING JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MEMBER
He retired from the 49th district and is running in the 52nd against indicted Congressman Duncan Hunter.
At his press conference today he announced if he wins apparently his seniority counts even though he's currently retired and he would be the ranking judiciary committee member (or if the House were to flip, the chair).
He denounced impeachment as a "witch hunt" and blasted Dems for investigating, apparently forgetting how many dead-end investigations he led into the Obama administration in hopes of finding impeachable offenses.
The race has shifted dramatically in the past 24 hours. Four lesser-known Reps bowed out of the race and endorsed Issa, who was the richest man in Congress and capable of dumping millions into his own campaign.
There are two other Reps besides Issa and Hunter in the race. Carl DeMaio is a tax-slashing, boisterous, right-wing radio host with power of the airways to motivate the grass-roots wingnuts. He is gay and has been pro-choice, to some degree so not the popular choice of the evangelicals in rednecksville. His supporters interrupted Issa's presser with chanting and Demaio is accusing Issa of running from his own district and pocketing donors' money, though neither of these guys lives in this district.
State Senator Brian Jones announced yesterday. He is a cookie-cutter young conservative type, more aligned with evangelicals than the other two. He is generally viewed as respectful of others and is known throughout the district due to the huge overlap in the state senate and Congressional districts. He has no negative baggage other than for those who don't like conservative views.
The Democrat, Ammar Campa-Najjar, came within 3 points of beating Hunter last election after Hunter's indictment (trial may start in January, though he's angling to postpone). So the district isn't as red as perhaps thought, but now with strong conservative candidates to choose from Ammar will have a much harder time. He has national money as this race is being closely watched. He used to work in Obama's Labor Dept. and also for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He's been tarred by Hunter over his Arab-American background though if Issa comes up on top in the primary he is also an Arab-American, so that issue may be neutralized. Ammar will need a mountain of money to run against any of the three contenders above in the March 3 primary here and the general assuming he makes it into the top 2.
There is also an independent woman, Helen Horvath, running who is conservative on some issues but 100% pro choice, further muddying up the race. She may pull some moderate and Republican women on that issue.
Hunter himself is refusing to resign since as long as he's in, he can use his campaign donors' money to pay his legal bills since he's accused of frauds involving spending campaign money on mistresses, trips abroad, etc.
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