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Sacramento Bee Columnist Daniel Weintraub

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June 25, 2003

More alarm bells for Issa

The San Francisco Chronicle reports this morning that Rep. Darrell Issa was charged in a 1980 auto theft case in which the charges were later dropped. The never-before reported allegation was the second time that Issa was charged but not convicted of car theft. The first incident was made public at the time of his 1998 campaign for the US Senate. Both cases involved Issa’s brother William. The new report stems from a San Jose case in which Issa was charged with falsely reporting the theft of a Mercedes that his brother had sold to a San Jose car dealer. Issa, who was an Army officer at the time, said the car had disappeared from the Monterey airport while he was out of town. He denied knowing that his brother, posing as Darrell Issa, had sold the car.

While this story is classic political character assassination, it’s also something voters should know about the history of a guy who’s trying to take down the governor and get himself elected to the job. Issa says he’s always been up front about why he went into the car alarm business, which is the source of his personal fortune: “My brother was a car thief.”

But it remains to be seen whether the voters will trust that explanation. And if Issa, who more and more is becoming the public face of the recall, is taken down, will the recall fall with him?