"Please step away from the car." Darrell Issa has competition.

CA-49-- this year's candidates, Darrell Issa and Doug Applegate

- by Tracy B Ann

Darrell Issa, Representative for CA 49th district, a red-leaning (R+4) district that stretches from the northermost neighborhoods of San Diego into southern Orange County, is the richest member of Congress, with a net worth of over a quarter billion dollars. He is an asshat according to Salon, as well as a career criminal criminal, as DWT has documented for over a decade,  having been indicted twice for auto theft. Which is a bit ironic considering he made his money with a car alarm, the Viper, which actually has Issa’s own voice saying “Please step away from the car.” I have personally set that alarm off a few times.

Doug Applegate, the newest supporter of 90for90 is challenging Issa for that demographically changing-- over a quarter of the residents are Hispanics-- district's seat. Though, more correctly I should say, Douglas (Doug) Applegate, attorney in private practice and Certified Judge Advocate Under the U.C.M.J., the United States Court of Military Appeals, Colonel in the United States Marine Corp Reserves, retired after 32 years active and reserve duty including a combat tour in Ramadi, Baghdad & Fallujah.

Now, I know that some people might go “ooh” at his title and service, thinking this might just be the congressperson we need, especially for foreign affairs. I believe in unicorns and fairy dust though so I gave a bit of an “Ah...military and a lawyer? That can’t be good.”

Didn’t really matter because anyone is better than Issa. Well, maybe not anyone, there is someone running as an Independent who is a bit of a whack-a-doodle. Don’t think we want him either.

I started to do a little digging on Mr. Applegate and was a bit surprised at what I found. You can check out his Facebook page and Twitter here to see what he feels is important enough to repost. He grew up in a middle class, blue collar family and he’d like to work to save the middle class. He wants gender pay and health care equality and thinks "the U.S. mandatory sentencing & incarceration rates are immoral, racist and socially destructive." Take a full look at his issue statements here.

Most surprising to me was his stance on war. He’s concerned that Congress won’t ask the right questions of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about another war. His questions?

1. How many young American sons & daughters [and perhaps grandsons & grand daughters as well] would deploy to fight another asymmetrical insurgency war? [at a minimum requiring 20 to 25 counterinsurgents for every 1000 residents in an AO; i.e. more than 600,000 soldiers & Marines for an Iraqi population of 34  million]
2. How long will this asymmetrical insurgency war last? [protracted, defined by the Joint Chiefs as twenty more years of combat after the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam]
3. At what cost? [over $5-6  trillion, conservatively]

He answers his own questions with this:

"In the Middle East, the answers will end not with a declaration of a strategic mission accomplished, but instead in a declaration of bankruptcy for the Nation."

And I’m pretty sure the nation he is talking about is not one in the Middle East, but the one we live in. His answer to the issue of gun rights is so good you really have to read it yourself, but here’s a taste “...the NRA's myth of a good guy with a gun...”

Doug Applegate has raised about $50,000 so far but we all know that Issa has all the money in could possibly spend to defend his position, so let’s help Doug raise some money. You can donate here. In the end I think not only is he way better than Issa but that he is also a bit of a progressive.



[NOTE: Doug Applegate has not been vetted or endorsed by Blue America, although Issa's record of hyper-partisan obstructionism and his penchant for right-wing extremism should make him extremely and deservedly vulnerable, especially in a district President Obama actually won in 2008 and in which the Democratic presidential candidate is likely to win handily in November. Issa has endorsed Trump for president, which is not likely to go over well among most of his constituents.]