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Last modified Sunday, September 17, 2006 8:40 PM PDT [/b]

Issa faces three challengers in November election

By: SCOTT MARSHALL - Staff Writer

NORTH COUNTY ---- A Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian and a write-in candidate go into the November election.

That may sound like the set up for a political punch-line, but it is no joke. It is the election-year reality in the 49th Congressional District, where U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, 50, a Republican from Vista, faces three challengers in the sprawling, heavily Republican district as he seeks his fourth term in office.

Jeeni Criscenzo, 54, of Oceanside, a Democrat; Lars Grossmith, 47, of Oceanside, a Libertarian who has run against Issa before; and Frank Ford, 73, of Fallbrook, a self-described lifelong Republican mounting a potential write-in candidacy, are vying to oust Issa from the congressional seat he has held since he first took the oath of office in January 2001.


The 49th District covers much of North County and Southwest Riverside County, including Oceanside, Vista, Fallbrook and Lake Elsinore. Nearly half of the registered voters in the district are Republicans, with an additional 31 percent registered as Democrats. Issa has garnered about 60 percent of the vote or higher in each of his three previous general elections.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are elected to two-year terms. The current annual salary for a member of Congress is $162,500, according to the Web site of the clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Criscenzo and Grossmith won their parties' nominations to run against Issa without opposition and will appear on the November ballot. To qualify as an official write-in candidate, Ford must submit papers to the county registrar of voters office by Oct. 24, the registrar's candidate filing guide states.

No one had filed the write-in candidacy papers for the 49th Congressional District race as of Thursday morning, according to the registrar's office.

Immigration, war top candidate issues

Among the top issues facing voters this year are the war in Iraq and illegal immigration, the candidates said.

A married father of one who founded a successful company that makes auto security and sound systems, Issa said the "No. 1 issue" is immigration, which he said combines a need for border security and immigration reform.

Issa supports immigration legislation passed by the House of Representatives that spawned protests nationwide earlier this year. That bill calls for stricter enforcement of the nation's borders and would make illegal immigrants felons.

The U.S. Senate passed a different immigration reform bill backed by President Bush. That bill includes a guest-worker program and a way for illegal immigrants now in the country to attempt to become U.S. citizens.

Issa said the two bills have "pretty profound" differences, but that he believes legislators "can find common ground" and that he is dedicated to doing that.

Both Grossmith and Ford included illegal immigration when asked to identify what they saw as the top issues in the election this year. Criscenzo did not, but offered her views when asked specifically about the issue.

Grossmith said immigration provides more workers for American companies and who support social security. Problems with immigration appear to involve "socialized" programs like medical care and education, Grossmith said.

"If we had to err on one side, I would err on opening it (immigration) up to as many people as possible," Grossmith said.

Ford said he supports the immigration reforms backed by President Bush and believes the legislation that Issa and other House Republicans have supported will cause "terrific stress between the races" and is not right.

"There needs to be better enforcement, but it needs to be linked with migrant policy that is fair," Ford said.

Criscenzo said she has an immigration reform plan that "starts with the premise that we respect all human beings," and that the country also has other problems with trade policy and the "destruction of the middle class" that need to be addressed.

In addition to immigration policy, the candidates also offered different views on the war in Iraq.

Criscenzo has called for all congressional candidates to make a "peacemaker pledge" that says they will "make it a priority" to work together to "enact legislation calling for the speedy withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq."

Criscenzo: Get the U.S. out

Criscenzo also has received campaign contributions from an organization called ImpeachPAC, which states on its Web site that it supports Democratic congressional candidates "who support the immediate and simultaneous impeachment of (President) George Bush and (Vice President) Dick Cheney for their Iraq War lies."

"We need to work to put in a U.N. peacekeeping force and get the U.S. out," said Criscenzo, a marketing consultant, self-described peace activist and a divorced mother of two grown children. "There is so much anger at the U.S., we are not a peacekeeping force. We're seen as occupiers now."

A customer account manager at Indymac Bank and a married father of two teenagers, Grossmith said he believes the United States should withdraw its troops immediately, that the Iraqis should deal with insurgents themselves, and that the longer U.S. forces remain and are seen as imposing the American form of government, people will rebel.

"It's one thing to choose it (democracy) for yourself, and it's something else to impose it," Grossmith said. "There's just no reason our military people should be dying for that."

The founder of a successful business in the organic food industry who also has worked in the Christian ministry Athletes in Action and is a married father of four with 10 grandchildren, Ford said he opposed going to war in Iraq and believes U.S. troops should be withdrawn "as soon as we can."

"We're there and we've got to do what we can to create stability as we leave, but we don't need to be there five to 10 years," Ford said.

Issa said the debate should not be focused on saying U.S. troops will leave Iraq within a specific timetable like one or five years, but that the United States must say "unequivocally we will be there no longer than necessary."

"I think it's important that the people of Iraq know we will be there to support their needs, but not every one of their whims and desires," Issa said. "They have to defend their country against enemies foreign and domestic with their own blood."

The three challengers in the election are well aware of the odds they face as they take on Issa ---- Criscenzo has described it as a David vs. Goliath battle ---- but they are not deterred

"I meet people everywhere," Criscenzo said. "They say to me all the time, 'I'm a Republican, but ...' and the word 'but' is the most beautiful word I ever heard because it means they are ready for change."

Issa said he was "happily ensconced in a successful business in Vista with my wife," before he decided to run for office to serve the people of California and that he does not need a tough campaign challenge to meet with constituents and hear what they think.

"I really felt a calling to do what I'm presently doing," Issa said.

The candidates also cited several other issues they believe are important for voters in the congressional district.

Issa said he has worked on projects specific to the district that voters will consider, including pushing government agencies to work on San Luis Rey River flood control, supporting military families and securing federal funding for the widening of a stretch of Highway 76.

Criscenzo identified her other top issues as recognizing the reality of global warming and working to solve the problem, "saving the middle class," and providing single-payer, universal health care for all Americans.

In addition to the Iraq war and immigration, Grossmith said cutting taxes and overall government spending is a top issue in the election.

Ford also said federal government spending with a Republican-controlled Congress has been out of control, that passing on massive national debt to future generations is "neither conservative nor family friendly," and that he supports a balanced federal budget.

Issa said the federal budget deficit is declining and this year will be 30 percent below the estimate of a year ago. Cutting tax rates has fueled economic growth and increased revenues to the federal government, Issa said.

Criscenzo said she decided to run because she had heard no one was going to challenge Issa and she thought that was "ridiculous."

"I'm not doing this for any reason but I love this country and I don't like what's happening to it," Criscenzo said.

Grossmith, who received 2.5 percent of the vote in his run against Issa in 2004, said he provides voters an option they would not have if only Issa and Criscenzo were running.

"You have a choice for big government and more spending with one candidate, and with the Democratic challenger, bigger government and more spending," Grossmith said. "Those trains are heading to what I call the Cubanization of America. ... We just need another option."

Ford said he decided to run as a write-in candidate in part because of comments he heard Issa make about the United States needing to give Israel some "tough love" during the recent hostilities between Israel and the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Ford, who said he helped build the Republican Party in Texas in the 1960s and moved to Fallbrook in March, said he liked having the odds against him and that "there's no virtue in any political party, per se."

"I stand on principles," Ford said. "My principles have never changed."

Issa said he has been a steadfast supporter of Israel, visiting the country a total of 12 times in his six years in Congress, and that he has support among several Jewish-American groups in San Diego County.

Issa said he wants to serve the people of the district and meets with as many people and groups as he can to listen to his constituents.

Contact staff writer Scott Marshall at (760) 631-6623 or smarshall@nctimes.com.

http://www.darrellissa.com

http://issa.house.gov/

http://www.jeeniforcongress.com

http://www.sdlp.org/tbcm/

http://www.sandiegorepublicans.org/

http://www.sddemocrats.org/

http://www.fec.gov/

http://www.impeachpac.org/