50th Congressional Race: Republican Darrell Issa Vs. Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar

Speaker 1: 00:00 Recent polls show the race for the 50th congressional district is San Diego's. East County is neck and neck. Former Congressman Darrel ISA is running against former U S Hispanic chamber of commerce official and East County native. Uh, Mark been ajar, KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman takes a look at both candidates. Speaker 2: 00:19 I'm trying to teach you the best I can. And I'm telling you if you're honest, but that's fine. And I'm trying to keep you honest. The race for the 50th congressional district is heating up. I look forward to having you as a constituent. When I returned, you know, my, uh, I can't say the same cause you don't live in the district, but I do live in the district. Republican Darrell, Issa and Democrat, Amar capita jar have had some tense exchanges during recent forums. He has great ideas, but I want to answer the actual question. I already answered the question. Oh good. You're responding to it. After serving in Congress for 18 years, most recently in the 49th congressional district Eissa is eyeing a return to Capitol Hill. He stepped down in 2018 after regular protest, outside his office in Vista, he was then nominated for a position inside the Trump administration. Speaker 2: 01:04 I make no bones about it as a conservative. The other district that I represented became very difficult, but I stood my ground. My two years sabbatical, uh, has certainly given me an opportunity to rest. So I I'm, uh, I've never been more excited about the job. The candidates are vying for a traditionally conservative seat once held by Duncan Hunter. The district currently has no representation. Hunter resigned after pleading guilty to misusing campaign funds. The district covers much of East County and goes into Temecula. 40% of voters in the 50th are registered Republicans while 30% are Democrats still former Obama white house aid camp. And Azhar was able to grab nearly half of the vote in 2018 and is now running for a second time. Voters need to know that I am a Speaker 1: 01:47 Consensus builder. You know, I've managed to piss off both sides of the party, both parties. So I'm doing something right on the things we agree on. I want to go far creating jobs, apprenticeship programs, campus. Speaker 2: 01:58 The jar sat down with KPBS to talk about the issues while ISIS campaign did not make the former congressmen available for an interview. I said, did address many issues in public forums and debates. One of them was how to help businesses affected by the pandemic. Both candidates agree that the state should not be deciding who gets to stay open and who has to shut down. But I said does not want to see any more forgivable loan programs while camping a jar. Does the idea that we're going to throw another trillion to three and 3 trillion of borrowed money, uh, in order to keep people at home. I think that is foolhardy. It is inconsistent with what the, what I'm hearing small businesses are telling me. They just want to reopen Speaker 1: 02:37 What I'd like to do when I'm in Congress is make sure that these loans for small businesses are going to those who are employing people and need it. The most Speaker 2: 02:44 California governor Gavin Newsome recently issued a bold executive order to tackle climate change. All new cars sold in the state will have to be zero emissions by 2035, but capita jar says the state has energy issues and points to recent rolling blackouts. We need to make sure that our policies meet the demands. Right now. We don't have the supplies, especially in those peak hours. When the sun is setting, people are going home, we've done a good job with solar and wind and biofuels to have energy development, but we're not good with the storage yet. I said, agree. Storage is a problem and wants to see investments in energy alternatives like nuclear and pumped storage. We need to have be more innovative. We need to have large storage capability or we need to keep other systems on board. We're prematurely shutting down nuclear, which is of course zero emissions. Speaker 2: 03:31 The candidates have sparred over healthcare and how to lower costs for Americans. We have to reduce the cost of healthcare, not try to subsidize insurance. The basic goal is competition, tort reform, FDA reform. These are the three things that will work. I don't believe in single payer, just the opposite campaign as our did support Medicare for all while running in 2018. But now he says it's not affordable and he doesn't support single payer healthcare. I have your private insurance, if you want it, half of Americans habit, but then create competition to lower costs and increase the quality of care. Introduce a national Kaiser nonprofit plan. Give people the opportunity to buy into Medicare a little bit earlier through the end of June, I saw formerly one of the wealthiest members of Congress has raised $8.2 million of which nearly 6 million was donated or loaned by Eissa himself. During the same time, camping as are, has raised just over $3 million. Speaker 1: 04:26 Joining me is KPBS reporter, Matt Hoffman and Matt. Welcome. Hey Maureen. Now in recent days, new controversies have emerged in the 50th district campaign. Both candidates have had Facebook live discussions with Justin Haskins, the leader of the defend East County group. First of all, can you remind us what this group is and the kinds of actions they've been involved in? Speaker 2: 04:50 So it was a group that was formed after may protest in the Mesa. Those are some racial injustice protests. We saw some, some looting. Uh, we saw some buildings that were burned down. I mean, this group was formed. They say sort of to protect their community, uh, from, from these looters, from some of these writers, but some of the group have espoused some right wing conspiracy theories made some racist statements. And they've also called for violence against some of these protesters. Now I will say that that's not everyone in the group. And the, and the leader, Justin says, look, we have 22,000 people in here. Some people are angry and they're going to post some things that they shouldn't, but they say that the group is not about violence. And he says that he disavows white supremacy. Speaker 1: 05:24 Now Republican Daryl Eissa seemed to give the group his whole hearted support in his discussion with Haskins, his comments supported militia groups and their right to defend their communities. Tell us about. Speaker 2: 05:36 Yeah. So I, so was talking about the antifascist movement known as Antifa talking about the black lives matter movement. Um, say that, look, these groups sort of take away people's rights and they empower, uh, sort of, uh, some of these bad actors, uh, that we see some of these, some of these criminal elements, um, when he's talking about some of the looting that we see and sort of, he's saying, look, when, when this is happening, um, when law and order breaks down, there needs to be people there to sort of defend the communities. And he expressed support for their sort of vigilantism. You know, he said that they were a very important part as law and order was breaking down. And yeah, he later said, look, a militia is a personal right. And a it's it's their right to, um, when their community is, you know, under some sort of duress to sort of take charge if their government fails them or it's, they're able to take arms Speaker 1: 06:20 Perhaps more surprising is the whiskey and cigar Facebook live meeting between Haskins and Democrat Amar camp in a jar. What are some of the comments that came out of that? Speaker 2: 06:30 Yeah. So there was a lot of comments in that meeting that someone described as really pandering a lot and sort of moving away from some of the base that are, that our Mars built just first of all, the confirmation process for a Supreme justice, Brett Kavanaugh, I'm saying that, look, we need to know, can you do the job? That's what matters the most? He sort of said that he wouldn't have gotten the way of his confirmation. Um, had he been a Senator I'm also talking about, had he been a Senator? Um, he supports the current justice at Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation, you know, sort of saying, look, she's qualified as a justice. And look, we have a Republican Senate and the Republican Senate is going to confirm her. Um, and those are some things that are really angry. A lot of people now, he also talked about who he's going to vote for president. Speaker 2: 07:08 He did vote for Biden in the primary, but during this interview with Justin, he said, look, my vote is open. And he said, you guys think I'm going to vote for Biden necessarily, but I want to see how they perform in these debates that are coming up. Now, I do want to say Maureen, that after we pressed him on some of these questions, he did walk back a lot of this, especially who he was voting for president, I'm saying over the weekend, there was a 99% chance that he was voting for Biden. And then we saw just a couple of days ago, um, him posting on social media saying I have voted for Biden. Uh, so he's walking back. Some of these comments that he's making. Um, he also did tell Justin that, uh, he wanted to investigate Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, uh, for their potential role, um, and investigating president Trump. Um, and that's something that Justin, uh, really, really pressed him on. He said, he'd be open to, um, investigating everybody. Um, not, not just that, but also president Trump. Speaker 1: 07:54 So CAMBA new Jara is apologizing for his conversation. Why is he doing that? What kind of flack has he got? Speaker 2: 08:00 Yeah, so capital's are, has got a lot of flack from a lot of, a lot of activists in the community. A lot of these groups who have been out there protesting were sort of a defender's County might be counter protesters. And they say that they have a lot of experiences where they've, uh, you know, either, uh, physically harmed them, or they've said statements to them that they believe are, are, are just racist. And a Mar campuses are saying, Hey, look, I did not know this before I sat down with the group. Um, I knew that they, um, had, you know, raise some suspicion or something, but he said he didn't know that they had, you know, threatened people's lives. Um, and we're seeing him posts, you know, a lot of apology videos. I know he's meeting with groups in the community, tried to just say that he was going there to try to reach across the aisle, but he does point out that some of these comments he made, maybe he did go a little bit too far. Speaker 1: 08:39 No. Another controversy involves company jars accusations against Daryl Eissa. Now Darryl, I say it has an estimated fortune of several hundred million dollars and camp did. Josh says that I said took up PPP loan of $100,000 or more for his business. Those loans were meant to shore up small businesses during the pandemic. So does, Eissa say he took the loan. Speaker 2: 09:04 This whole issue had been talked about during forums between the two candidates, but it really came to a head on campus. I put out a TV ad basically saying that a company owned by Eissa got a PPP loan. Um, and that Eissa also at one point donated $150,000 to his campaign, which was the amount of the PPP loan. Uh, and basically that ad said, look, you know, I say, shut out businesses from critical money. Um, and he funded his campaign with tax dollars. Now Eissa completely pushes back on that. He does admit yes, a company that he owns dig it a PPP loan for $150,000, but no none of that money was ever given to his campaign. Uh, he says he didn't cut in the liner or jump up, jump ahead of anybody to get this money. And I would say Maureen too, something to keep in mind is that ISIS says this too. Speaker 2: 09:47 He's given millions of dollars to his campaigns. Um, and he sort of says, you know, for a Marta pick out one transaction where yes, he did give $150,000 to his campaign. Um, and one, a business he owned also happened to take $150,000. PPP loan is just disingenuous. And I think the point that, uh, Mars making is look, you are worth a lot of money. You did not need the PPP loan in general. So really Maureen, if you really sort of read between the lines here, there is some truth here. So I said, did take $150,000 PPP loan, but the business that he owned, the company that he owned, they didn't get a PPP loan. And then that company did not transfer money directly to his campaign. I so personally has given millions of dollars to his campaign. Uh, he just says it's very unfair for a Mar to sort of try to make this correlation when there is not one that exists. Speaker 1: 10:30 I've been speaking with KPBS reporter, Matt Hoffman and Matt. Thank you. Thank you to see debates between Mark [inaudible] and Daryl Eissa tune into K USI at nine 30 tonight and NBC seven Saturday at 6:00 PM.