50th Congressional District. Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar v. Republican Darrell Issa.
California’s 50th encompasses San Diego’s northern and eastern suburbs. They used to be represented by Duncan Hunter. He resigned after being indicted for misusing campaign funds. He resigned long after the indictment, .long enough afterwards so that the Governor did not call a special election. So…this is an open Republican seat.
Ammar Campa-Najjar is the Democratic candidate. He’s young – 31. He was born in California to a Mexican American mother and a Palestinian father. When he was eight, his family moved to Gaza. He went to a Catholic School there. After four years, his mother returned to California with him and his brother. He worked his way through high school to help his now single mother. While in high school, he converted to his mother’s religion, Catholicism.
He would not escape his Palestinian heritage. His grandparents were targeted for assassination by Israel for his grandfather’s part in the Munich Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes, a role that has been challenged in a recent book. Persuaded by the book, Ammar Campa-Najjar withdrew he previous condemnation of his grandfather.
Ammar Campa Najjar worked as a deputy field director in the 2012 Obama reelection campaign after which he worked in the Labor Department. He has also worked for the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and ran for Congress in 2018 – losing to Duncan Hunter.
Darrell Issa has been around. He is 67. More than twice the age of his opponent. He grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, son of a Lebanese Maronite Catholic father and a mother with German and Czech family ties. He dropped out of high school to join the army where he was trained in defusing bombs and earned his GED. He had his troubles. He was arrested twice the year he was discharged, the second time he was convicted for carrying an illegal weapon. He returned to the army as an officer after completing ROTC while getting a BA. Before he was discharged, he was arrested and indicted again – this time for Grand Theft Auto.
Ironically, he made his fortune, learning about car theft alarms, foreclosing a loan from a partner, and selling car theft alarms. He sold the alarms to automobile manufacturers. Eventually, after a fire that he appeared to expect, he sold the company and moved from Ohio to California.
If you ever wondered who was responsible for cars honking when it appears that a potential thief is nearby, blame Darrell Issa. He may have annoyed you and your neighbors, but he sold a lot of car alarms. Not enough to win himself an election to the US Senate against Barbara Boxer. Enough to get elected to the US Congress where he was one of its wealthiest Members. In Congress from 2000 on, he decided not to run in 2018, an election he had good reason to think he could lose.
He is running again in 2020. CA 50 instead of CA 49. In a district likely to elect a Republican. In a district which is probably the only one in American history to see a contest between two Arab-Americans.
