Who is Darrell Issa, the man behind recall of CAL govenor?

Rep. Issa was Charged in San Jose Auto Theft
Rep. Issa was Charged in San Jose Auto Theft
Lance Williams, Carla Marinucci, Chronicle staff writers
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, the driving force behind the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis, was prosecuted with his brother in San Jose in 1980 for allegedly faking the theft of Issa's Mercedes Benz sedan and selling it to a car dealer for $16,000, according to court records.

Issa, in a phone interview with The Chronicle Tuesday, blamed his brother for the car theft, which was detailed in documents on file in Santa Clara County Superior Court and which has never been made public.

"I do not steal," Issa said.

The second-term San Diego area congressman has pumped $1 million into the campaign to recall Davis and has declared he will run for governor should the recall qualify for the ballot this year. Issa's previous political campaigns have been roiled by allegations that twice -- once while a student in his hometown of Cleveland and once while a soldier in Pennsylvania -- he also was involved in car thefts.

In the San Jose case, Issa, who at the time was a 27-year-old U.S. Army officer, and William Issa, 29, were arrested by San Jose police on a felony auto-theft charge in February 1980.

They were accused of a scheme in which Issa's brother allegedly sold Issa's cherry-red Mercedes 240 to Smythe European Motors in San Jose for $13,000 cash and three $1,000 traveler's checks. Within hours, Issa reported the car stolen from a lot at the Monterey airport, near his Army post at Fort Ord.

Issa and his brother pleaded not guilty. A judge ordered them to stand trial on felony charges, saying he had a "strong suspicion" that the men had committed the crime, according to the records.

CASE DISMISSED

But in August 1980, a prosecutor dismissed the case for lack of evidence. The men later were charged with misdemeanors, but that case was not pursued, said retired police Detective Richard Christiansen, lead investigator in the case.

Issa, 49, became a multimillionaire manufacturer of electronic auto alarms, including the popular "Viper" anti-theft device. "When people ask me why I got into the car alarm business, I tell them the truth," he said in a statement to The Chronicle. "It was because my brother was a car thief."

He was elected to Congress in 2000 from the San Diego County town of Vista after losing a bruising, high-profile campaign for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1998.

In those campaigns, Issa denied allegations of car theft and sought to blame political opponents, including Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., for planting news stories about the allegations to discredit him.

"They can't beat us on a good stand-up-for-families, stand-up-for-law-and- order type agenda," he told the Riverside Press Enterprise during his 1998 Senate Race. "They have to do it with lies in the last minute of the campaign."

THE BEARDED LIEUTENANT CAPER

The San Jose case began on Dec. 28, 1979, when a bearded man identifying himself as "Lt. Darrell Issa" and using Darrell Issa's Ohio driver's license for identification drove up to Smythe European Motors on Stevens Creek Boulevard in a new Mercedes and said he wanted to sell it.

In a preliminary hearing, salesman Norris Poulsen testified that the driver -- police contended it was Issa's brother, using Darrell Issa's driver's license for identification -- agreed to take $16,000 for the car. Then he asked for a ride to a nearby Bank of America branch.

There, the driver obtained $13,000 cash and three $1,000 travelers' checks, said teller Marcela Lawrence.

Meanwhile, according to the records, Darrell Issa had called police, saying that upon his return from a Christmas vacation in Ohio, he had discovered his Mercedes was missing from the parking lot at the Monterey airport. The car's pink slip had been locked in the trunk, Issa told police.

Police investigated the case for two months, records show. Detective Christiansen testified that he repeatedly had interviewed Issa by phone and had even driven with him from Monterey to the old Fort Hunter Liggett Army base south of Big Sur to distribute a police sketch of the person who had sold the Mercedes.

The detective said he suspected William Issa was the man who had sold the car because he closely resembled the sketch of the suspect. He began to suspect Darrell Issa also was involved because some of his statements seemed unbelievable or inconsistent, he said.

Christiansen said that at first, Darrell Issa had denied he had recently gotten a new driver's license. But later, the detective said Issa acknowledged that while in Ohio he had obtained two new driver's licenses -- one a renewal, the second to replace the first because he didn't like the photo on it.

Issa also said he didn't recognize the composite sketch but wanted to send a copy of it to his mother to see if she knew the man. Christiansen said he found that unbelievable. The sketch was "absolutely dead right on the brother, and how anyone in the family could fail to recognize him I couldn't understand, " he said in a phone interview.

In legal papers, prosecutor Donald Mulvey contended that "Darrell falsely reported the theft of his vehicle at a time when he was aware that (William) had sold the vehicle to the dealership." The prosecutor also said Darrell Issa had tried to mislead police about his brother's role in the theft.

BROTHER NOT REACHED

Efforts to reach William Issa Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Issa told The Chronicle that he believed police had targeted him because "they always thought I was not coming clean enough essentially to (help them) prosecute my brother." He blamed his brother for the San Jose arrest.

He said he couldn't answer every question about the case because "it's been enough years that I don't remember any level of details like that." But he denied complicity in the crime, saying, "It is impossible to believe that anyone would be stupid enough to steal a car and sell it under their own name."

Issa said he never tried to conceal his San Jose arrest. He said his campaign managers had advised him not to discuss it unless he was asked about it.

The Cleveland arrest "came out in the first election, and I asked my own people, 'Should we tell them about the other one?' " Issa said. "They said, 'No, they'll bring it out.' "

In court, defense lawyer William McCrone argued that Issa's statements to police should be thrown out because he hadn't been given a Miranda warning.

The lawyer also wanted the case dismissed because he said Issa's right to a speedy trial had been violated. He said that while the case was stalled, Issa had left the Army and obtained a job with a "major oil company," which fired him when it learned of the theft allegation.

William Issa's attorney contended that no crime had been committed because Darrell Issa had offered to buy the Mercedes back from the dealership for more than the amount it had paid.

The court rejected the arguments. But in August 1980, when the case was called for trial, the DA's office chose not to proceed, Christiansen said.

"Most auto thefts are fairly easy, but this one is obviously a lot more involved," Christiansen said. He said he had persuaded the district attorney's office to refile the case as a misdemeanor, but it was never prosecuted.

ANOTHER CASE IN '72

The San Jose case was the second time that Issa and his brother were allegedly involved in car theft.

In 1972 Issa, then 19, was indicted with his brother William on a charge of felony grand theft for allegedly stealing a red Maserati sports car from a car dealership in Cleveland, court records show.

The case was dropped. When the Los Angeles Times reported on it in a 1998 story, Issa told the newspaper he had been wrongly implicated because his brother William had an arrest record.

"I was exonerated of all wrongdoing. My brother went on to have a long and sordid career," he told the Times. "I am not my brother. I am not my brother's keeper."

In the third incident, a retired Army sergeant claimed that in 1971 Issa, then an enlisted man, had stolen a Dodge sedan from an Army post near Pittsburgh. The allegation was published in a 1998 story in the San Francisco Examiner. It quoted the retired sergeant as saying he had recovered the car after confronting Issa and threatening him. Issa denied the allegation, calling it reckless, the newspaper reported. No charges were filed.

When his opponent in the 2000 campaign for Congress raised the same auto- theft allegations, Issa denounced them as lies, according to press accounts.

Issa, who was re-elected to Congress last year, has emerged as a major player in state politics by becoming the main financial backer of the drive to recall Davis.

Issa founded Rescue California, a pro-recall organization, and has donated $1 million of his own money through Greene Properties, a real estate firm he owns with his wife.

The funds pay for a statewide network of professionals who aim to gather the needed 900,000 valid signatures to put the recall on the ballot.

Issa has launched his own campaign for governor and is campaigning around the state, while insisting the required number of signatures will be submitted to county registrars by mid-July.

If he makes his goal, the matter could go before the voters later this year.

But Issa said Tuesday he believed the accusations, though in the public record, had surfaced as an attempt to derail his political plans.

"I don't think this was fair game" on the part of his political opponents, he said, adding they were "looking for things other than legitimate policy issues to go after."

©2003 San Francisco Chronicle

Calif: Political Minority Rules via Initiative & Budget
In California, Political Minority Rules Through Initiative and Budget Process
By Brian Melley Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 2, 2003

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - In a state that swells with 35 million people, it has taken fewer than a million voters to put the job of Gov. Gray Davis in jeopardy.
In a Legislature made up mostly of Democrats, it took only a handful of Republicans to put the state's budget in a monthlong stranglehold.

As left as California may lean, a radical recall process and a constitutional requirement that two-thirds of lawmakers approve a budget gives a conservative minority influence that far outstrips its share of government.

Constitutional changes made during the last century are having major impacts now and lending credence to the image of free-spirited Californians who embrace political change like it's the trend of the week.

"The East Coast image is it's la-la land, it's full of kooks," said John Ellwood, a public policy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "If it only takes 1 million votes, they'll do it all the time."

Exhibit A is the effort to toss Davis out of office. Seventeen states have recall provisions, but none is quite as unique as the Golden State's.

To send Davis back on the campaign trail a mere nine months after he narrowly won his second term, signatures were required of only 12 percent of voters in last fall's gubernatorial election.

While it will take a majority of ballots Oct. 7 to remove Davis from office, choosing a successor could take far fewer votes. Voters will face two questions: whether to recall Davis and who should replace him.

More than 100 people have taken out applications to be on the ballot and if enough voters choose to dump Davis, the state's 38th governor will be the candidate with the most votes - a scenario that could anoint someone with the support of only a small plurality of support.

While some in the state think the minority has become too influential, John Samples of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C., disagrees.

It's far easier for minority and special-interest groups to succeed by lobbying to defeat an initiative than to succeed in getting their own issue approved by voters. The recall effort is an uncommon success.

"It's hard for smallish groups to get their way," Samples said, noting that fewer than a third of initiatives pass.

California's recall, referendum and ballot initiative processes date back to 1911. As the progressive movement swept westward, it became more radical the farther it went, Ellwood said. California and Oregon set the lowest thresholds to get measures on the ballot.

Republican Gov. Hiram Johnson, a progressive, ushered the changes into the state's constitution after railroad bosses bought influence in the Capitol, staining the image of lawmakers.

To some extent, mistrust survives to this day.

"California is sort of the peak of distrust of representative institutions," Ellwood said. "It's a Western state. All these initiatives are in the West where you have the highest level of individualism."

Voter wariness of politicians has been palpable ever since tax revolters passed Proposition 13 in 1978, setting limits on property tax hikes, and inspiring a nationwide wave of direct democracy, said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll.

"They feel legislators can be manipulated and they feel they're less prone to that," DiCamillo said. "Voters may think they make better decisions when the issues are very general and very broad."

That leads to support of voter-driven initiatives, as well as other checks on lawmakers. In a recent Field Poll, 45 percent of registered voters surveyed opposed the idea of reducing the supermajority - or two-thirds support - required to pass a budget or raise taxes. Forty percent supported such a change.

The power that constitutional requirement gives to a minority party was illustrated this summer as the state grappled with solving its record $38 billion budget crisis. Democrats wanted to raise taxes, Republicans said no and stood firm.

While Democrats have stacked the California Legislature for nearly 45 years, they have been shy of the supermajority in at least one of the houses, leading to late budgets in all but three of the last 20 years.

It took nearly a month before the Senate passed a Republican compromise Sunday and the Assembly signed off Tuesday after a record-setting 29-hour session.

"It demonstrates that the public is leery of one-party control," DiCamillo said. "Even though one-third of the Legislature can hold up the process, certain segments of the public support that because they think it will lead to compromise."

As an Arab-American, I am a bit disteressed by the first article. I guess I wonder if you are implying that since Issa is of Arab descent, he is unfit to govern? If that is the case, then I fear that you are way of base,and should be ashamed of yourself for joining the current correct form of bigotry (Arabs are bad, they all want to kill Americans, etc...). If, on the other hand, you are criticizing his suport of Hezbollah, I wholeheartedly agree. It is at least as bad as Delay's recent trip to Israel to attempt to stymie the Arab/ISraeli peace process.
I do, however, share your discomfort with his shady business deals, etc...
A bad precedent was set in the last administration when the far right decided that it wished to completely destroy the concept of elected officials,and sought to remove form office those whom they disagreed with. The impeachment of President Clinton was an example of this sort of farce. I found it terribly sad that the final reasons for impeachment were his dalliances with a not-too-bright starstuck girl.
Fast forward to the Republican's behaviour in Florida in 2000, and one gets a chilling preview of 21st century American governmental policy.
The recall effort in California, financed by a right wing extremist (Issa) and his cronies, the redistricting efforts in Texas, and the successful redistricting that occured in Colorado are all examples of the erosion of Democracy in the US. Another example may be found in the courting of the xenophobic "Nativist" movement typified in Colorado by Tom Tancredo, who has, among other things, attempted to prevent an illegal immigrant under the age of ten from receiving a kidney transplant,and has also attempted introduce legislation that would disallow the conferral of citizenship on the children of illegal immigrants. The list goes on and on.

HobbitBob
HobbitBob, please be reminded that none of the opinions in these articles are my opinions or my words. I'm merely posting information about Issa written by others, I'm not responsible for any biases you may perceive in them.

For anyone interested in reading what Issa says about himself, you can find more on:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Darrell+Issa&btnG=Google+Search

---BumbleBeeBoogie

Issa recall leader said he won't run; hung by his own petard
Darrell Issa, the man who started the California governor recall for his own political ambitions benefit realized the subsequent circus has hung him by his own petard.

-----BumbleBeeBoogie
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Calif. Recall Leader Says He Won't Run

The Associated Press
Thursday, August 7, 2003; 3:42 PM

SAN DIEGO - The millionaire congressman who largely funded the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis abruptly pulled out of the race to replace him Thursday, a day after actor Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped in.

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, who made his fortune selling car alarms and pumped $1.7 million of his own money into the recall effort, announced he would not run in a tearful news conference.