Darrell Issa

Darrell E. Issa (pronounced Eye-suh) (born November 1 1953) is an American politician and former CEO of a consumer electronics company. A Republican, since 2001 he has been a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the 49th District of California (^*). His district consists of portions of southern Riverside County and northern San Diego County. The district was numbered as the 48th District during his first term and was renumbered the 49th after the 2000 Census.

Aside from his service in Congress, Issa is also known for being a major contributor to the 2003 recall election of Governor Gray Davis.

Biography

The grandson of Lebanese immigrants, Issa was born in Cleveland and enlisted in the Army during his senior year of high school, retiring in 1980 with the rank of captain. He attended Siena Heights College in Adrian, Michigan, on an ROTC scholarship, earning a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1976. He later moved to Vista, California, a suburb of San Diego, where he now lives.

Issa made his fortune through his company, Directed Electronics Incorporated, that is most famous for its flagship product, the "Viper" car alarm. It bears one notable siren which is a recording of Issa's voice, "Warning, you are too close, this vehicle protected by Viper." As of 2004, Directed Electronics was North America's largest aftermarket automotive electronics manufacturer. Issa divested all personal interest in Directed Electronics after being elected to public office, but is one of the richest members of the House.

After Issa got into politics, this background became a target of investigations into his business and personal dealings. Directed Electronics grew out of a Cleveland car alarm company that Issa had invested in, and he took control of the company from his business partner, Joe Adkins, in 1982 over a dispute about a loan he had made to Adkins (During his 1998 Senate campaign, the Los Angeles Times published allegations by former company executive Jack Frantz relating that after winning control of the company in court, Issa told Frantz he was fired and displayed a handgun ([http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/07/02/MN153221.DTL). Issa denied this and said he didn't recall having a gun. During the gubernatorial recall campaign, he did acknowledge a 1972 conviction for misdemeanor possession of an unregistered handgun while attending college in Michigan, for which he was fined $100 and given three months' probation.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Issa was charged with auto theft in San Jose in 1980, but charges were later dropped (^*). He blamed the incident on his older brother William, who was also charged in the case, and said that the experience with his brother was the reason he went into the car alarm business.

Political career

First campaign

Issa's first campaign for elected office came in 1998, when he sought the Republican nomination for United States Senate to run against incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer. He backed the campaign with $12 million of his personal wealth, but lost the primary election to California State Treasurer Matt Fong. Fong's campaign raised $3 million from contributions and complained that Issa's wealth made for an uneven playing field (Issa had only $400,000 in contributions). An Issa spokesman countered that the money was needed to compensate for Fong's statewide name recognition (Fong prevailed in the open primary by a margin of 22 percent to 20 percent for Issa. A San Francisco exit poll suggested that large numbers of Asian-Americans had crossed party lines to vote for Fong ([http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1998/06/03/NEWS135.dtl).

House of Representatives

Two years after Issa's failed Senate bid, Congressman Ron Packard, a nine-term incumbent, announced his retirement. Issa capitalized on his name recognition from the 1998 Senate race, and won a bruising Republican primary against State Senator Bill Morrow. This win was tantamount to election in the heavily Republican district (only the Orange County-based 48th District is considered more Republican). During his 2002 run for re-election, the Democrats failed to field a candidate, and his closest competition was from Libertarian Karl Dietrich. A write-in candidate from that election, Mike Byron, went on to become the Democratic challenger in 2004 (^*).

Issa currently serves on the U.S. House Committee on International Relations, the House Judiciary Committee, and the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform. He serves as the Chairman of the Government Reform Subcommittee on Energy and Resources and has also played an active legislative role on the issues of immigration, intellectual property protection, and the Middle East.

Most recently, Issa mounted an unsuccessful campaign to join the ranks of the House GOP leadership hierarchy. He finished third of the four candidates vying for the chairmanship of the House Republican Policy Committee, and was ultimately passed over in favor of Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL), which was a setback to Issa's political career.

Gubernatorial recall

Issa came to national prominence when he contributed over $1.6 million to help fund a signature-gathering drive for the petition to recall Gray Davis. At the time he made the contribution, it was widely believed that Issa intended to place himself on the ballot to replace Davis. However, with only two days before the filing deadline, Issa announced that he would not run. Issa later said that his mission had been accomplished since Davis was recalled and he wanted to continue representing his district in Congress and work towards Middle East peace.

For the recall election, Issa endorsed Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, at one point in the campaign he actually suggested that people should vote against recalling Davis, concerned that Schwarzenegger and fellow Republican Tom McClintock would split votes and install Democratic lieutenant governor Cruz Bustamante as Davis' successor (^*).

Middle East involvement

As one of the few Arab-Americans in Congress, Issa has had a significant but sometimes controversial role in U.S. peace initiatives in the Middle East. He traveled to Lebanon as well as Syria in an effort to negotiate the withdrawal of the Syrian presence in Lebanon. In 2003, he appeared at a Washington rally by Iranian groups protesting against the Islamic government in Iran (^*).

Activist Debbie Schlussel wrote a column calling him "Jihad Darrell", charging that he sympathized with Hezbollah despite its being listed by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization (Issa denied this; he later speculated that Schlussel's column might have inspired an aborted Jewish Defense League plot in 2001 to bomb his district office in San Clemente (Irving Rubin was arrested along with Earl Krugel in connection with the plot, which reportedly had focused on other targets before shifting to Issa's office ([http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_hate.jsp?id=371" target="_blank" >^*).

Issa's support for Palestinian causes has also attracted criticism from various conservative organizations, even though he has a lifetime rating of 92 from the American Conservative Union.

External links

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