S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , Congressman Darrell Issa will not run for reelection. We'll tell you why. And who wants to fill the seat for the 48th district ? This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. So longtime Congressman Darrell Issa announced he will not run for re-election in 2026 and will be retiring at the end of the year. Issa has been part of Southern California politics for decades. In a statement , Isiah said , quote , it's the right time for a new chapter and new challenges , unquote. Also on Friday , San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond announced his candidacy for the newly redrawn 48th district seat. And here to talk more about the news is Scott Lewis , CEO and editor in chief at Voice of San Diego. Scott. Welcome back to midday.
S2: Thank you Dave. Nice to be here.
S1: Always glad to have you. So this news comes. It came late Friday , actually.
S2: You know , a lot of people assume he might be doing this. He insisted over and over again that he wouldn't. He even openly flirted with and talked about how good he'd be as a candidate in Texas at a safe , sort of conservative seat out there , and then came back and said , no , I'm going to stay home. I'm going to run for re-election , and I'm going to win. Even last week , he said , I'm going to win. I'm going to run for re-election , and I've got no problem winning. And then some things started happening last week. One of the candidates for state Senate moved over to a congressional seat where Jim Desmond , the county supervisor , a Republican , was running against Mike Levin. And and that indicated that Desmond had other plans , and sure enough , Desmond filed to run for the seat that Isa had and no way he would try the primary Isa. And so it became clear that Isa was considering something else. And sure enough , by the end of the day , Isa on Friday had endorsed Jim Desmond. And just today , um , you know , another sort of wild card out there , Carl. Damien. Assemblyman. A lot of people were wondering if he would want to run. He endorsed County Supervisor Jim Desmond today , too. So the Republicans have united behind Jim Desmond to try to keep this seat. That became a lot more Democratic. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Now , ISIS district was reshaped after proposition 50 passage last year in a move to designed really to give Democrats more congressional seats in 2026.
S2: It went from a district that voted about 14 points in favor of Trump to one that Kamala Harris won by about 2.5% points. So , you know , very dramatic change. It's a gigantic district that reaches almost to the border in the desert in the south , all the way up through to Palm Desert and Coachella Valley. And , you know , that whole area. So it it's , you know , really population centers are concentrated in Escondido , San Marcos Vista. But Temecula is involved. And so it's a very , um , you know , geographically diverse and gigantic , like I said , district. Um , and it's , you know , it's kind of the Democrats to lose at this point in a sense that , you know , they have an edge. And you would think in a midterm election the Democrats will do well , uh , or do better. But you never know with the politics in the world the way it is right now. How things could change.
S1: Yeah , well , you know , back to Jim Desmond or Soup County Supervisor Jim Desmond , I should say. Um , of course , he announced his own campaign for the seat.
S2: He's termed out as county supervisor. He's he's , you know , methodically gone up the ladder. He was a mayor of San Marcos. Um , then he was , uh , he was county supervisor. He took a very sort of , um , you know , uh , a conservative approach during the , the Covid pandemic and really , you know , brought in a lot of people who were skeptical of the closures of the vaccine and other things. He's , uh , really worked to to be the conservative voice opposing fees and taxes , um , that the , the uh , county wants to do. He has supported the labor groups there , though. Um , and , uh , you know , he's he's really tried to be the voice that , uh , you know , that would kind of mimic what Donald Trump has , has been for the federal government , uh , at the county. And , and he , you know , had no opportunity for re-election that he's termed out at the county. So , uh , he wanted to run. He was running against Mike Levin in the 49th district. But then with the redraw , it now includes the 48 now includes the city. He used to be mayor of San Marcos. So it's a it's a natural switchover for him. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Just curious.
S2: I think Issa might not like that comment , but I think that he he is he's not as tied to Trump. There will be a lot of antipathy towards Trump in , in in the Democrats messaging. They'll be really excited to drive and to try to capitalize on on some of the frustration with Trump , especially with a more Democratic district. And I think he's , you know , he's definitely less tied. I don't know how much sort of direct connection they'll have to to Trump. Obviously they'll they'll find some and find a way to , to tie him to that administration. But I think he's a he's a strong candidate. He's known in the district. I said he was mayor of one of the cities. Issa was a little , um , you know , more of a had a little bit more of the carpetbagger sort of , um , feel to him as he , as he switched districts himself , um , a couple cycles ago. And so I think , um , he's a stronger candidate. Uh , and with the Republicans united behind him , you know , national Republicans will see this likely as a , as a must win and poor as much resources as they can into it , unless it's just obvious from the start that he has no shot. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. Uh , can you remind us who is running on the Democratic side of this race and where does that.
S2: Yeah , there are a few candidates. There's , there's kind of three main ones. Um , Marney Van Wilford is a city council member at the San Diego City Council. Uh , she's been racking up a few endorsements. They're both fighting. Or there's others fighting for labor endorsements. She just got , you know , a few good ones. Um , she's , uh , strong candidate. Amara camp and Aja. Uh , this will be his third time running for Congress. And , um , he's he's got his own share of endorsements. A lot of , uh , members of Congress , um , including his his influential , um , girlfriend representatives. Sarah Jacobs has been supportive. Obviously , there was a story out about how she's she's doing all she can to make sure her colleagues don't feel pressured to endorse him , but they still are in waves. Um , and he , uh , he's got a lot of , uh , social media , uh , prowess and such. He's doing well , um , getting a lot of endorsements to. And then there's a businessman from Palm Springs , uh , Brandon Riker. He actually , ten years ago , ran for , um , lieutenant governor in Vermont , And he ended up abandoning that race. But he had a lot. He has a lot of money , and he was part of his family's investment firm for a long time. So , uh , kind of an entrepreneur out of the Palm Springs area and , um , and , you know , very tied to wanting to make sure that Coachella Valley and that area is represented well. So those are the sort of three. There's Mike Shafer , a member of the Board of Equalization. He's a former city council member. Um , you know , been in public service for a long , long time. And he , uh , he's in there as well. But those are the those top three are kind of the main one.
S1: Now , I know , you know , you've been following the local Republican Party , um , for a minute and some of the changes that have been happening within it as well. Now , one name we often see and those stories is State Assemblymember Carl DeMaio.
S2: Isaiah and DeMaio. They've had battles at the party level in a way that , like Ice has been directly and personally involved in for a while. I think it's fair to say I or DeMaio won and he now , you know , is the most by far influential member of the local Republican Party. And the allies of Issa have have fallen. Um , but , uh , they , um , you know , like I said , they united to support Desmond for this seat , which was an interesting one. DeMaio and Issa ran against each other a few years ago , and it was it was gross. It was one of the ugliest , uh , elections I've ever seen. You know , um , Issa was openly gay baiting , um , de Mayo and , uh , de Mayo was , you know , long , um , you know , linking him , linking. I said to Ms. 13 gangs and it was just a it was a really ugly and bitter fight for that seat , uh , that Issa ended up winning. And I don't think they'll ever forgive each other for for how that went. So that was pretty gnarly. And I think , um , you know , I don't know , I think a lot of people were waiting to see if , if de Mayo got into this , even with Desmond getting in and the the Secretary of State , um , extended the window because the incumbent dropped out and , uh , and then I said , or like I said today , let it be known that he's enthusiastically supporting Desmond for that seat. So that's a big deal for Desmond and and for the party uniting. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , you know , Isa has changed districts before and even fairly recently was considering some options to maneuver around the redistricting challenges you mentioned. He talked about moving to Texas.
S2: You know , when he was flirting with the run in Texas , he he had a conversation with , um , President Trump in the white House. And I'm very I wish I could hear what they had said to each other and what Trump may have offered him to for a sort of third stage of his career. He was an entrepreneur , made a ton of money in the car alarm business , and then he became a congressman for about the same amount of time. So he's got kind of a third stage. I guess that's something he could do , maybe in the administration , maybe an ambassadorship , something like that , that he's tried for before. And so we'll see what he he goes for there. He was known as , you know , a big time in the oversight world for the Fast and Furious scandals and the the Benghazi scandals from the Obama administration. You know , a lot of a lot of those were were something that , uh , um , Congressman Issa was a big part in ginning up interest in. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , tell me more about his legacy , because he was in California politics for over two decades. Um , you know , I mean , if you had to describe it , how would you.
S2: I think the biggest first thing I remember him doing was in 2001 , 2 or 3 , when he led the recall campaign , he was openly wanting to run for governor. And so he he triggered this recall campaign against Governor Gray Davis. Um , and then , you know , we all remember what actually happened , which is , uh , a very much more famous man. Arnold Schwarzenegger ended up getting into that race. And so I , I think spent a lot of his personal fortune will not lie. I mean , he's a very , very rich man , but he spent a lot of money trying to get that done and then watch somebody else take the glory from it. He ended up becoming like kind of he tried to become more of the moderate wing of like , the intellectual property and technology world. Um , but then he became a lot more partisan , uh , especially with the oversight of , of the Obama administration when he was oversight head there and the Benghazi investigation and stuff like that. And then he was very , um , quick and and immediately and energetically supportive of President Trump. He wasn't one of those who had any doubts. Um , he was there from the beginning and , um , and really identified himself with that. So that sort of hurt some of that kind of , um , Moderate , uh , you know , tech guy center stuff that he was going for before. Uh , and , you know , spend a lot of time still on , on intellectual property issues and such , but he , uh , but the oversight and the connection to Trump is , is what he ended up with. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , in the last 30s we have , what are you expecting from the 48th district race ? Now as we look towards the June primary and November midterm elections ? Yeah.
S2: So County Supervisor Jim Desmond will probably get through the primary , which means that we're just wondering who will go with him. So , uh , probably between those three main candidates , Brendan Riker , uh , Mark camp and Aja and Marty Van Wilbert and will be really interesting to see which what which one emerges and then how they immediately start pulling. Because if it's close , both national parties will pour massive amounts of money into it. And it could be very ugly and very interesting.
S1: I've been speaking with Scott Lewis. He's the editor in chief at Voice of San Diego. Scott , thank you so very much. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Thank you Jake.
