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Darrell Issa — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Early life, education, and military service

The second of six children, Issa was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Martha (née Bielfelt) and William Issa, who sold trucks and ground valves. His father was the son of Lebanese Christian immigrants, and a member of the Maronite Catholic faith. His mother is of German and Bohemian (Czech) descent and a Latter-day Saint.

During his childhood, the large family moved to a three-bedroom house in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Cleveland Heights. Many of Issa's friends were Jewish, and he reportedly worked for a rabbi at one point. He became very familiar with Jewish culture.

In 1970, on his 17th birthday, Issa dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Army. He became an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technician assigned to the 145th Ordnance Detachment. Trained to defuse bombs, Issa has said that his unit provided security for President Richard Nixon, sweeping stadiums for bombs before games in the 1971 World Series. A May 1998 investigation by Lance Williams of the San Francisco Examiner found that Nixon had not attended any 1971 World Series games, but that Issa's unit did perform security sweeps during the series. First Lady Pat Nixon was present at Game 2 of the series, where she threw the first pitch. After the series, Issa was transferred to a supply depot, a result of receiving poor ratings.

Issa received a hardship discharge from the Army in 1972 after his father suffered a heart attack. After that, he earned a General Educational Development (GED) certificate.

Twice that year, Issa was arrested. In the first incident, a grand jury indicted him for theft of a Maserati, in a complex scheme with his brother William, but prosecutors dropped the charge. In the second incident, he was stopped for driving the wrong way on a one-way street, and a police officer noticed a firearm in his car's glove compartment; Issa was charged with carrying a concealed weapon. He pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered firearm and was sentenced to six months' probation and a small fine. Issa has said he believes the record has since been expunged.

Issa majored in business administration at Siena Heights University, a small Roman Catholic college in Adrian, Michigan, completing his degree at the Stark campus of Kent State University. While at Kent State, he enrolled in the Reserve Officer Training Corps; at graduation he was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

Issa served in the Army Reserve from 1976 to 1980, and was promoted to captain. From September 9 to 26, 1980, Issa served on active duty while training with the 1/77th Armor Battalion as an Assistant S-1. His evaluation report, by then-Lt. Col. Wesley Clark, read, "This officer's performance far exceeded that of any other reserve officer who has worked in the battalion" and "Promote ahead of contemporaries. Unlimited potential."

Shortly before his discharge from the Army in 1980, Issa was again indicted for grand theft auto. The prosecution dropped the case in August 1980. In 1981, Issa was in a car crash. The other motorist sued him for $20,000; they eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

Elections

When nine-term incumbent Republican U.S. Congressman Ron Packard did not run for reelection in 2000, in California's 48th congressional district. Issa ran for the seat, capitalizing on his name recognition from the 1998 Senate race. The district was primarily based in northern San Diego County, but had small portions in Riverside and Orange counties. Issa finished first in the all-party primary with 35% of the vote, winning a plurality in all three counties; Republican state senator Bill Morrow was second, with 24% of the votes. Issa won the November general election, defeating Democratic nominee Peter Kouvelis 61%–28%.

After redistricting, Issa's district was renumbered the 49th and lost its share of Orange County. Like its predecessor, the district was still overwhelmingly Republican; it had a Cook Partisan Voting Index (PVI) of R+10. No Democrat filed against Issa that year. He was reelected, defeating Libertarian nominee Karl Dietrich, 77%–22%.

A write-in candidate from the 2002 election, Mike Byron, became the Democratic challenger in 2004. Issa was reelected to a third term, defeating Byron 63%–35%.

Issa was reelected to a fourth term, defeating Democratic nominee Jeeni Criscenzo, 63%–33%. He was one of four Middle Eastern American members in that Congress. He has said that he identified primarily as Lebanese, not as pan-Arab.

Issa was reelected to a fifth term, defeating Democratic nominee Robert Hamilton, 58%–37%. The 21-point margin of victory was the second smallest in Issa's career. He carried San Diego with 60% of the vote and Riverside with 57% of the vote.

Issa was reelected to a sixth term, defeating Democratic nominee Howard Katz, 63%–31%.

After the 2010 census, Issa's district was renumbered the 49th and made significantly more compact. It lost its share of Riverside County, along with most of its share of San Diego County. It gained a small portion of southern Orange County, including San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Dana Point, and part of Laguna Niguel. The district was more competitive on paper than its predecessor. The old 49th had a PVI of R+10, while the new 49th has a PVI of R+4.

Issa was reelected to a seventh term, defeating Democratic nominee Jerry Tetalman, 58%–42%. The 16-point margin of victory was the smallest in Issa's political career. Issa carried the San Diego portion of his district with 55% of the vote and the Orange County part with 66%.

The June open primary was contested by Issa and two Democrats: Dave Peiser and Noboru Isaga. The top two vote-getters, Issa (62%) and Peiser (28%), advanced to the general election. Issa was elected to an eighth term, 60% to 40%.

In the June open primary, Issa received 51% of the vote to 46% for Democrat Doug Applegate, a retired Marine colonel. Issa and Applegate advanced to the general election in November. In October, Applegate and Issa were ranked by the Cook Political Report as equally likely to win.

Issa sent out a campaign mailer that featured a photograph of President Barack Obama signing a law. The mailer said that Issa was "very pleased" that Obama signed the Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act, which Issa had co-sponsored.

Unusually, President Obama responded to this late campaign mailer by saying that Issa's "primary contribution to the U.S. Congress has been to obstruct and to waste taxpayer dollars on trumped up investigations that have led nowhere." Obama said that, because of fading support for Donald Trump, Issa was promoting his cooperation with the president although he had previously accused Obama of corruption.

Issa said, "I've worked with the administration on good legislation where it was possible, called out wrongdoing wherever I saw it and will continue to do so."

On November 23, 2016, Issa held a 3,234-vote lead with approximately 6,000 ballots still uncounted. He declared victory, but Applegate had not conceded. The Associated Press finally declared Issa the winner on November 28, citing a small but convincing lead with only a few votes left to count.

Multiple Democrats, including Applegate and environmental attorney Mike Levin, launched campaigns for California's 49th district seat. Given the close margin in 2016, the election was expected to be highly competitive. For months, Issa's Vista office was the site of weekly protests. Hundreds of people gathered to protest against Trump and his agenda and actions. At a May rally, 800 people showed up to protest the House vote to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). On January 10, 2018, Issa announced that he would not run for reelection. Democrat Mike Levin won the seat.

On September 26, 2019, Issa announced that he was running for California's 50th congressional district in the 2020 election. The incumbent at that time was fellow Republican Duncan D. Hunter, who was then under indictment. In December 2019, Hunter pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and resigned from Congress effective January 13, 2020, leaving the seat vacant.

In redistricting, the 50th district had absorbed much of Issa's former base in the more Republican inland portion of San Diego County. Issa placed second in the March 3, 2020, blanket primary and beat Democratic challenger Ammar Campa-Najjar by nearly 30,000 votes in the general election. Issa said he could switch districts because he owns his mother's home in Bonsall. He has long lived in Vista, where he has raised his family.

Tenure

After the 2010 elections, Issa became chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He was a vocal advocate for investigations into the Obama administration, including the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, corruption in Afghanistan, WikiLeaks, and the Food and Drug Administration, among other topics. In 2010 he told the press that he wanted the committee to hold investigative hearings "seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks."

In February 2011, inewsource (then the Watchdog Institute), a nonprofit investigative reporting center based at San Diego State University, published an investigation alleging that as leader of the committee, Issa built a team that included staff members with close connections to industries that could benefit from his investigations.

On February 16, 2012, the committee held a hearing on the Department of Health and Human Services's regulation requiring insurance plans to cover birth control, which Issa said would violate the religious freedom of people who oppose the use of birth control. Democratic members submitted attorney and activist Sandra Fluke as a witness for promoting women's health, but Issa did not permit her to testify, saying her name was submitted too late, a claim Democrats challenged.

In 2013 Issa introduced the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2013 (H.R. 2061; 113th Congress). H.R. 2061 aimed to make information on federal expenditures more easily available, accessible, and transparent. President Obama signed the bill into law on May 9, 2014.

Issa introduced the FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2014 (H.R. 1211; 113th Congress) on March 15, 2013, a bill to amend the Freedom of Information Act in order to make it easier and faster to request and receive information. The bill would have required the Office of Management and Budget to create a single FOIA website for people to use to make FOIA requests and check on the status of their request. It would also have created a Chief FOIA Officers Council charged with reviewing compliance and recommending improvements, and required the federal agency to release the information it disclosed to the person who requested it publicly afterward.

Issa argued in favor of the bill because it "shifts the burden of proof from the public requestor seeking information about a government agency...to the government being open and transparent unless it has a good reason to withhold." The bill passed the House unanimously on February 25, 2014, but a nearly identical Senate bill failed when it was tabled by House Speaker John Boehner.

Issa introduced the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (H.R. 1232; 113th Congress) on March 18, 2013, to make changes and reforms to the framework that manages how the federal government buys new technology. One of the requirements would be that the government develop a streamlined plan for its acquisitions. The bill would increase the power of federal agencies' chief information officers (CIOs) so that they could be more effective.

Each agency would also be limited to having only one CIO, who would be responsible for the successes and failures of the agency's IT projects. The bill would also require the federal government to make use of private-sector best practices. The bill was intended to reduce IT procurement-related waste. It passed the House in a voice vote on February 25, 2014. In December 2014 it passed as a section of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015. Issa also introduced and co-sponsored The Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (Pub.L. 113–283, S. 2521; commonly referred to as FISMA Reform), which Obama signed into law on December 18, 2014.

On May 7, 2014, Issa introduced a simple resolution in the House (which passed 231 - 187): Recommending that the House of Representatives find Lois G. Lerner, former Director, Exempt Organizations, Internal Revenue Service, in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with a subpoena duly issued by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The resolution holds Lois Lerner, one of the central Internal Revenue Service officials involved in the 2013 IRS targeting controversy, in contempt of Congress for her refusal to testify about the scandal before Issa's committee in response to a subpoena.

In July 2017, Issa introduced the CLASSICS Act to Congress in a bipartisan effort to empower artists by collecting royalties for the preceding three-year period and also by ensuring their creative rights remain in force for pre-1972 recordings just as newer artists are guaranteed by current legislation. Issa has been a consistent cosponsor of the Fair Play Fair Pay Act as well; granting radio performance rights for musicians and record producers.