Politics Report: Deals and Congressional Conversations

Say you’re a lawmaker who wants to raise the minimum wage for tourism workers. The thing about doing a minimum wage for just some businesses is that those business owners don’t want to have to pay a higher minimum wage than the ones who don’t have to pay it. They will want to be part of the group that doesn’t pay it.

(I’m a brilliant political analyst.)

So as you, a lawmaker, are deciding who should have to pay it, you open up a world of opportunity for deals. You either make lots of deals with them or you leave the perception that you have. For example, the Zoo got out of having to pay the new minimum wage. Why? Because it’s a nonprofit and nonprofits are going to get an exemption.

Coincidentally: The Zoo’s lease being on the City Council docket Monday. The mayor and city leaders want to charge for parking at the parking lots by the Zoo and the Zoo wants to make sure to distinguish its guests and give them a different rate. Rather than renegotiate the whole lease with the city, they apparently figured out a way to do the parking negotiation alone.

Now comes SDSU: I heard this week that the university had also made a deal to get out of the minimum wage increase. SDSU is not a for-profit entity either but some of the companies running events at Snapdragon stadium and other venues are.

This is what I got from SDSU’s La Monica Everett-Haynes a university associate vice president and the chief communications officer.

“There is no final approved deal at this time, however our conversations are ongoing, so I cannot provide any specific details at this time. What I can say now is that, as the ordinance is currently written, there would be severe and negative impacts to our student-run auxiliary units as well as our university’s event spaces.”

If the “final approved deal” is an agreement with local labor unions, it would be maybe not that big of a stretch to conclude that this pursuit was not so much about raising the minimum wage for tourism workers as much as it was about finding leverage to force deals, in particular, deals for labor.

The Dems Who Want to Take on Issa

Out of nowhere, we now have the most interesting Democratic primary fight we’ve had in a while. Two candidates, Ammar Campa-Najjar and San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert have decided to run against U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa in the 48th Congressional District.

The move to redraw the district and all other congressional districts in California lit up their ambition alarms. Our pal Mason Herron ran the numbers for all the congressional districts and how the change would change things. In Issa’s current district, President Donald Trump won the 2024 vote by more than 15 percentage points. The new district? Former Vice President Kamala Harris won the vote by nearly 3 percentage points.

It’s not a Democratic lock by any stretch but you can see why they want to change it.

I interviewed both von Wilpert and Campa-Najjar this week. Here are our conversations edited down to the basics and for style.

Marni von Wilpert: ‘This Is Not the America I Grew Up In’

The Politics Report: I’ve heard a lot of things about your ambition — you might run for mayor, you might run for state Senate state or Assembly. What made you land on this?

Yeah, I’ve heard a lot of rumors too about what I’m going to run for. It’s very funny. I’ve been watching as the federal government – Darrell Issa and Donald Trump have been taking actions in our country that have been incredibly destructive. I grew up here in San Diego and one of the things I’ve seen growing up here is how life has changed, including how the cost of living is just rising astronomically. People are having a harder time staying here. You know, I’m 42 years old. I went to Scripps Ranch High School and I became a lawyer. And yes, I’m in public service, but it’s still very hard to live here. And so I’ve been working hard on the City Council to try to do things to lower the cost of living and voting against utility rate hikes and starting the first down-payment assistance program for teachers and lowering the price of food for seniors.

And then I see Donald Trump and Darrell Issa doing everything they can to raise the cost of living on our residents with Trump’s tariff wars. They are causing extreme discomfort with our manufacturers locally along the border region, cutting all of the science grants and cancer research grants is crippling our universities and our biotech leaders. They’re cutting Medicaid and healthcare to raise our costs all to give tax breaks to billionaires. There are women now dying in hospitals in states like Texas because they can’t get access to reproductive care. As an LGBTQ individual, I am sitting waiting to see if the Supreme Court is going to overturn my right to marriage equality this year. And so when the seat opened up, I said, you know what? Let’s go, let’s get in the fight.

Proposition 50 is going to have a big impact on this race, on the district, on what you’re looking at. If that doesn’t pass, is this something you’ll still pursue?

Yes, I will, and we’ll reevaluate what the strategy will be, but I am all in to unseat Darrell Issa. I think he’s been failing us for 20 years. I mean, if we don’t pass Prop 50 in California, we’re in a whole bigger world of hurt than just, you know, me not running for a seat.  Texas started the redistricting fight with Trump. They’re imposing their maps on their voters. It’s very anti-democratic. Here in California, it is the most democratic way possible because the voters get to be heard directly at the voting booth.

What world of hurt would you see if we don’t pass this?

The continued attack on all of our basic freedoms that we’re seeing?  I’m really disturbed by what we’re seeing with attacks on women’s rights attacks on LGBTQ rights. All of us are really disturbed by what we’re seeing, the way that ICE is carrying out raids and going to hospitals and churches and schools. I mean, we are all for a strong and secure border, but this is un-American, what they’re doing. And it’s going to get worse if we don’t put a check on Trump’s power.

You said we’re, we’re all for a strong and secure border. Where would you draw the line on what you know, what’s an insecure border and, and what’s happening now?

Using ICE to raid sensitive locations like hospitals, churches, schools? We just saw the news story of an ICE raid on the front lines of a wildfire in Washington state. I mean, these are sensitive places. That is un-American. Nobody expects to go to church and suddenly see masked government agents marching in to take people out. We need bipartisan progress in immigration reform. We actually need to have a functioning immigration courts. You don’t have to wait 10, 20 years to get your cases heard.

I am appalled by what I’m seeing the Trump administration and Darrell Issa and all of the Republicans doing about deploying the National Guard on American citizens. You know, I oversee the city of San Diego’s over $5 billion budget. And one of the things we have been working on very hard is reducing the cost of overtime for our public safety units, our law enforcement, our firefighters, because it is one of our biggest costs

And so while I am seeing the federal deficit absolutely balloon under this administration, I am watching our National Guard troops thinking they’re all going to get overtime. They’re being deployed against American citizens, and all this is doing is racking up this bill of national debt for people our age.

Even if the Prop. 50 changes the district, it will have a pretty significant number of Trump supporters. Do you have a message for them?

Yes. I’ve, I’m the only Democrat in this race who’s won elections. And I have won elections in very red or purple districts. You know, I’ve flipped what was Carl DeMaio’s old City Council seat. We’ve done a really good job just making government work for our residents, and I’ve spent time listening to people who may not agree with me on issues.

When I passed the two major gun violence prevention laws that I did at City Hall first, the ban on legal ghost guns and then the Taxpayer Accountability Act for firearms dealers, I brought together gun owners, law enforcement and gun violence prevention advocates. And they were all at the table and they were all at my press conferences.

There’s a fair amount of negative feeling about how the city of San Diego’s operating. There’s a lot of popular outrage still simmering about the trash fee about the parking meter increase. You were a a no on the trash fee, right?

Yes. I was a no on the trash fee.

But you’ve supported some of these other things.  I’m curious how, how you reflect on, on how the city’s handled this deficit.

Yeah, I do not agree with how we have calculated the trash fee. I don’t think we need to be spending over $60 million on new trash cans at the same time. However, I do know there is an active lawsuit against the city for the trash fees, so I don’t want to get into it too much more into it.

I never thought we should have bought 101 Ash Street and, you know, gutted our infrastructure fund to pay that off.  Before we impose more costs on residents, I think we needed to look about how we could deliver services more efficiently with our, our in-house teams have ideas too.

And thank you for covering the County Water Authority (she opposed water rate hikes and wondered whether we should leave the Water Authority). I was one of the first people to speak out about it and people didn’t think I had any idea what was going on or was talking about. And suddenly when everyone else jumps on board, they’re lowering their rates by a lot. We need to put pressure on ourselves, on other government agencies to lower costs for people.

Do you think we should break up the Water Authority?

I’m open to it. I am grateful to the Water authority predecessors who did give us safe and reliable water sources. Of course, at the same time, we are now completely changing how water is going to be sourced for residents, not only in the city of San Diego, but in the counties around us. With our Pure Water programs. We’re no longer going to be relying solely on importing water. And if so much of our infrastructure is changing to the Pure water with us, with East County, you know, orange County’s already done it, other areas are looking at it. If all of us are switching to this new model of not importing water, we do need to reflect on what role the County Water Authority serves.

Ammar Campa-Najjar: ‘I Was Ready to Move On’

Prop 50, obviously everybody’s buzzing about it. If it doesn’t pass, are you still in?

The answer is not definitively “no.” But I don’t think that’s going to be a scenario that will be likely. I think it’ll pass. I think obviously there’s some stalwarts who are against it, like the former governor (Arnold Schwarzenegger is working to defeat it). But while I think it would behoove the president to not insert himself into this issue, I don’t think he has the discipline to do that.

And, just like the recall, once he does, California will act accordingly. I think it’s been a very, like, bold, aggressive, and transparent process. Like it’s the first time we’ve ever seen a map on a ballot in the whole country.

Our goal is to win this in order to raise the bar, to get people in office who believe in independent commissions nationwide. And the other side’s goal is to do their gerrymandering, to lower the bar not to make these districts more independent. So, you know, we have, it’s a short-term strategy and tactic for a higher purpose. The distinction is daylight versus darkness.

You’ve had an interesting few, a couple years since the election. You joined the Navy (Campa-Najjar became an officer in the Navy Reserve). You know, my wife was an officer in the Navy. That’s what brought us here.

I didn’t know that. What was her community?

She was a nuke — a nuclear engineer.

Oh, nice. The brains in the family

Yeah. And the money for a while.

Well, I can relate on the spouse who’s both of those things in the family. (Campa-Najjar has for years been dating U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs.)

Wait, are you guys married?

No. We’re partners.

OK

I’ll be very honest with you. I was ready to move on from politics.

I am doing the military, I’m teaching here at Georgetown for the semester, which I’m going to be taking a leave of absence from. I found a very fulfilling service-driven life. Right? And you know, it was hard because politics had been my life for so long. I was one of those folks who was just very demoralized by the direction of our country. I was very comfortable and content.

And then I got phone calls from national leaders who said, this redistricting thing’s happening. And you’re uniquely positioned to win.

It’s still going to be a tough district, but I won 166,000 votes in this district. Nobody else comes close. I’m the only candidate in this race who’s ever gone a single vote in this district, let alone 166,000 votes anywhere in the county. And so we have the ability to, to finish strong because we’re starting strong. I’ve never lost the primary to a Democrat.

I wasn’t eager to jump into this thing. I wanted to test the waters and see if there was any there, there. And there was, and it took on life of its own. During our exploratory phase, we secured a lot of endorsements. Congressman Mike Levin, Scott Peters, Derek Tran, and up there in Orange County who won by 600 votes. He knows a tough race. Dave Min, stalwarts of our party and delegation, Eric Swalwell and Ted Liu. I won’t belabor it.

We spent a lot of time, you and I, talking about your connections to Chula Vista when you were running for mayor there. Yeah. You really worked hard to make sure that was clear. And this is a much different area. How do you explain to people some of this jumping around? You know that’ll be something that comes up.

I appreciate you going to be charitable about it because you’re putting it very gently. Look, I feel fully aligned with my values on this. It’s all true. This district goes from the border to Palm Springs. These districts can somewhat be artificial sometimes. Throughout my entire life, I’ve been trying to find ways to serve. I know that sounds so generic and political, but it’s just been what’s been the calling on my heart. It’s just how I’m wired. And I felt very much living my truth running in East County where I was born, and my family lives. My mom and stepdad live in Jamul and I also felt very comfortable running for office in Chula Vista where I went to high school.

These are artificial lines. But what is real is that these are all communities of interest to me.

Let’s get into some of the topics. Obviously immigration comes to mind. One thing that struck me was when somebody, I believe it was Tom Homan, the border czar said something to the effect of, you may not like what we’re doing, but it’s both OK by the law and authorized by Congress and funded now by Congress as well. You would be in Congress. When you look at what’s happening and what he’s doing, where do you want to see the line drawn?

When you have everybody from like Bernie and AOC to Steve Bannon and Joe Rogan — especially Steve Bannon telling Gavin Newsom on his podcast — that this idea of rounding up people and deporting them to countries they’d never been in without due process, including American citizens, that’s when you know that you’re on the wrong side of history. The lack of do due process with ICE, the militarization of our major cities — that is not what people who were at the uniform signed up for.

You gotta be hopeful. You gotta be a prisoner of hope because even when I’m elected, we’ll have the administration for two more years. And, you know, maybe on a good day where they talk about dreamers and they talk about farmers and, uh, get them to sign a bill or not veto it.

Some of the most awkward situations you’ve found yourself in have been you talking to conservative audiences. This is a district, even a new one, that would have a pretty significant population of Trump supporters. What’s your message to them?

Look, my strength has always been being a coalition builder. The hard-earned lessons and harder earned wisdom that I’ve gained, that there are limits to that coalition. There are limits about who you engage with. And you could empathize with somebody without agreeing with them. You could engage with them without endorsing their positions.

Those experiences have made me a better messenger of our party.

I think the way that we have to deal with Trump voters is when they are inevitably hurt by these decisions coming from the administration instead of wagging our fingers and saying, “I told you so,” we have to have outstretch arms and say, “we understand, welcome.”

I think is how we’re going to be able to win majorities in Congress and get power and actually have an affirmative policy agenda that will deliver for people. And hopefully we don’t become the minority party that’s fighting on the opposite side of every 20-80 issue.

You brought this up, the 80-20 issues. When you think of things that Democrats need to get their act together on, like you said, what are you thinking of?

I’m not saying we don’t fight for the most vulnerable in our communities. I think it’s not accepting the frame in which the argument is presenting from the other side. Our job is to look out for the little guy, no matter who they are, people who are outnumbered. Whether it’s people in the LGBTQ community, whether it’s, you know, undocumented immigrants who don’t have a voice. But not accepting the framing that just traffics and missing disinformation and forces us to concede points that don’t even exist out of political survival. So we had to have the discipline and the skill to reclaim the narrative and dominate the information environment.

We’ve lacked that. We could help young men who are struggling with despair and being less likely to have a home if they’re single on a home than a single woman or educational attainment. You know, the, the stuff that you hear from Richard Reeves and Scott Galloway that I’m sure you’ve read, and I’ve been immersed in myself. We don’t have to do that at the expense of women.

If you have any feedback or ideas for the Politics Report, send them to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org.

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