REGION: Challengers seek to derail Issa bid for fifth term
One says let banks fail; other says rescue them to save Main Street
By DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer | ∞
One of Rep. Darrell Issa's opponents in the Nov. 4 election would have voted for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.
The other man who wants to unseat the Vista Republican would have voted against it.
Issa voted against it twice ---- but for different reasons.
The nation's unfolding financial crisis provides a glimpse at the differences among the three candidates competing for a two-year term in the House of Representatives to represent the 49th Congressional District.
The district takes in Oceanside, Vista, Camp Pendleton, Fallbrook, Temecula, Lake Elsinore and the backcountry around Lake Henshaw.
Beyond the economy, the candidates also disagree on war and the energy.
As for the credit crisis, this is where the candidates stand:
Lars Grossmith, a Vista financial services manager who is the Libertarian Party's flag-bearer in the race, said government meddling several years ago was largely what put Wall Street into the mess it finds itself in.
"A lot of it goes back to the easy money," said Grossmith, 49. "They drove (interest) rates down so low that everybody wanted to buy a house, and that inflated the market."
Now the housing bubble's collapse is causing many banks to fail. That's just fine, as far as Grossmith is concerned.
"Let those companies fail that need to fail," he said. "That lets people know that if you make bad decisions and you fail, you're going to go out of business."
And those financial institutions that survive will be the ones who make sound investments, and they are the ones the country should be building a new economy around, he said.
Robert Hamilton, the Democratic candidate and a 62-year-old retired businessman who lives in Fallbrook, said the financial crisis had become so deep that Congress needed to act.
"I think it would have been virtually disastrous if we hadn't done something," Hamilton said.
He said his vote in favor of the $700 billion package would not have been about rescuing investors who made bad decisions.
"I'm not worried about the tycoons on Wall Street," Hamilton said. "I do worry, however, about Main Street. ... In the little communities around the country, credit was frozen."
Issa, 54, said there is a better way to unfreeze credit for Americans looking for loans to buy houses and cars, and that's why he voted against the package.
Rather than buy up banks' bad mortgage investments, Congress should have loaned money to them, Issa said.
With an obligation to repay the government with interest later, financial institutions would have had no choice but to lend that money to consumers in order to cover their interest cost. As it is, he said, banks are just hoarding the free cash they are getting from the government.
And the market remains in turmoil, he said.
"My belief is they had exactly the wrong solution," Issa said.
But other issues are of importance in the race, too.
On the war, going to Iraq was exactly the wrong idea, said Hamilton, and it is time to lay out a clear plan for leaving.
"The Iraqis are telling us to leave and we should be serving notice that we are going to be there only so much longer," Hamilton said. "I think a year is reasonable."
Grossmith would pull the troops out in six months.
"You can't pull them all out tomorrow, but I would have them out as soon as we can," he said. "I don't want any more Americans dying over there to help build nations for other people."
Issa, however, said the United States needs to keep its troops there for two to four more years.
"You can't just up and leave, and leave behind genocide and chaos," he said.
Issa added the U.S. already is scaling down operations as Iraqi leaders take on increasingly more responsibility for their country's future, and he would work to accelerate that trend.
On energy, Hamilton opposes the proposed Lake Elsinore hydroelectric project in the Cleveland National Forest, with its associated power line running to San Diego County, because he said it would take a toll on the forest environment.
Issa stressed, however, that in order to bring in green power such as solar and wind the region is going to have to build new transmission lines, such as the one proposed in Riverside County, to plug into. And he said he wants to keep the Lake Elsinore project on the table and let federal agencies determine whether it merits pursuing.
"There is somebody against every project," Issa said. "And if you don't do any of them, the lights go out in Southern California."
Grossmith said the move toward green energy should not be made, however, with government subsidies. Rather, he said, politicians should get out of the way and let entrepreneurs and the free market develop it.
"If someone can invent a better and cheaper form of energy (than oil), we'll all line up to use it," he said.
The X factor
When the lights go on at the polls on Election Day, voters should consider other factors, too, candidates say.
Grossmith said voters should consider that he is the only one who would truly work for smaller government and less government intrusion into their lives.
"It's either a lot more government or a little more government (with the major party candidates)," he said. "I encourage people not to waste their vote, and vote for me."
Hamilton suggested that he is best positioned to represent the district, as his home is in the center and he conducts business in a wide circle around it. He said he buys suits in Escondido, groceries in Fallbrook, seed for his bird feeder in Oceanside and books and sunglasses in Temecula.
"This is the year, maybe, for an upset," Hamilton added. "The young people are excited about (Democratic presidential candidate Barack) Obama, so maybe they will become excited about me at election time."
But at election time, experience often is a key consideration of voters. And Issa has eight years' experience in Congress, having first been elected in 2000.
Issa said he would use that experience, at a time when the economy is wobbly, to push for a change in unemployment insurance so that it provides basic health care to people who lose their jobs.
Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.
49th Congressional District
Darrell Issa, Republican
Age: 54
Residence: Vista
Education: Bachelor's degree in business, Siena Heights University
Employment: U.S. representative
Campaign Web site: www.issaforcongress.com
Lars Grossmith, Libertarian
Age: 49
Residence: Vista
Education: Bachelor's degree in economics, San Diego State University; master's in business administration, Cal State Dominguez Hills
Employment: financial services manager
Campaign Web site: www.lp.org
Robert Hamilton, Democrat
Age: 62
Residence: Fallbrook
Education: Bachelor's degree in political science, UCLA
Employment: retired international businessman
Campaign Web site: www.roberthamiltonforcongress.com
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Joan wrote on Oct 12, 2008 8:57 AM:I hope Issa is gone, we are the laughing stock in Congress and the Department of Justice committee to which Issa sits.
Issa has very little respect in congress..
Issa is rich... wrote on Oct 12, 2008 10:39 AM:Issa is rich and can live off his savings until the market stabilizes. Why would he want to bail out the economy? Us regular folks can't do that. My 78 year-old Dad (Korean war vet) is taking a big hit in his 401K's...he can't wait for the market to rebound.
You know, its funny how these politicians are all wealthy....what do they know about being a regular family. I emailed and phoned my concerns to Issa's office...no one ever returned my communications. I guess regular folks don't count. I want someone who's going to help working class folks like me. That's NOT Issa!
Watching... wrote on Oct 12, 2008 11:25 AM:Darrell sat on his thumb while watching career DOJ officials with serious experience and abilities get replaced by a bunch of inexperienced kids from Regents University in hopes of putting more God in your life....his God....with his color and money....SHAMEFUL
Voter wrote on Oct 12, 2008 12:14 PM:I hope these sentiments are reflective of the overall outcome of this election. No one even mentioned that he nearly single-handidly paid for the gubernatorial recall 5 years ago, for which he was initially a candidate.
Stuck in the mud wrote on Oct 12, 2008 1:31 PM:We are stuck with Issa for many terms to come. Teh only consolation will be that he will be in the super minority for the remainder of his time in congress. The last 8 years have made it clear that the pro-business, know it all, neo-con, empire building, morality meddling, anti-social, anti-American conservativism and class warfare practiced by Issa and his ilk has been an abject failure. MAybe he will move back to Cleveland.
John wrote on Oct 12, 2008 1:34 PM:I have already cast a sympathy vote for the Libertarian candidate (having run as a Libertarian candidate for the state legislature before). Maybe it will be close in this district, and Grossmith will be the "spoiler", Hamilton will win, and Issa will be gone!
To Stuck in the Mud wrote on Oct 12, 2008 2:32 PM:Well said!
Vote wrote on Oct 12, 2008 3:34 PM:It is time to shuffle the deck in Congress. Robert Hamilton has real world and real war experience and has earned my vote.
Vista Watchdog wrote on Oct 12, 2008 8:52 PM:At least Issa understand that Socialism is NOT the answer! I am anything but rich, and i was very much against the bailout. Not because I could afford to live off my savings or wealth, but because i understand that bailout is nothing more than a bailout of those who put the economy into the shape it is in! Those very same elite fools are laughing all the way to the bank with our taxdollars bailing them out. If the bailout were the end all and be all that our elitist representatives all claimed, then the market should have stablizied, or better yet JUMPED UP! But, instead it has fallen, even to the point of collapse even after the passing of the bailout. In fact, it went down faster after the passage than it was before. Clearly, Socialism is a BIG mistake, and Issa understands that FREEDOM and the Free Market is the best solution. The fools in Congress and the Senate mucking with our economy and forcing banks to provide loans to people unable to pay for them, allowing them to buy houses they could not afford, and providing lenders a menas through Fanny May and Freddie Mac to mitigate their risk by selling the bad loans to them is the worst thing that coudl ever have happened. It created a false rise in the housing market, false profits in the mortgage insdustry, and a false economy based on paper that was worthless. Very similar to the false economy of the dot coms (all on paper). Enron and World Com were child's play compared to the current illegal activities, and yet the Congress and Senate are not investigating. WHY? Because too many of them and their friends are part of the Scam. Isaa knows this and has spoken out against it many times. You say he is the laughing stock of Congress? Not at all! But, those currently in control of Congress want you to think such because if he were to gain any power they would be facing jail time!! just like those from Enron and WorldCom. Yep, Obama and his buds on the Left have all been a part of the biggest scam against the common American citizen, and our media has protected and covered for them. What good is Freedom of the Press when it is controlled by the elites and their cronies in Congress?
Issa has my vote for as long as we continue to have the Right to Vote! When he losses to those who would desire more of the Socialism and Federalization of our way of life, then our RIGHT to vote will go the way of the Dodo Bird!
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