Issa to Host La Jolla Fundraiser for Senator ‘Moscow Mitch’ McConnell

By Doug Porter / Words&Deeds / July 29, 2019

Ex-Congressman Darrell Issa has invited prospective donors to a reception at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club on Monday, August 12 starting at 5pm.

A check for five thousand dollars, payable to McConnell for Majority Leader, merits individual entrance to the event plus a photographic memento.

There are four things going on here: a fundraiser for the primary enabler of Trumpism, an opportunity to protest, the Majority Leader’s opposition to elections free from outside interference, and the return of Darrell Issa to the spotlight.

Here’s Robert Reich, describing the place in history McConnell’s actions have earned him, via the Guardian:

• No person has done more in living memory to undermine the functioning of the US government than the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell. 
• Yes, Donald Trump has debased and defiled the presidency. He has launched blistering attacks on Democrats, on judges he disagrees with, journalists who criticize him and the intelligence community.
• But McConnell is actively and willfully destroying the Senate.

The Senate Majority Leader has raised $11.2 million for his reelection since 2015, including more than $3 million in the second quarter of 2019. The campaign currently has $7.9 million cash on hand. 

The Kentucky Republican is America’s most unpopular senator, according to a nationwide survey of voters by Morning Consult poll.  And even though McConnell isn’t particularly beloved in his home state, the fact remains that as of 2018, Kentucky was about 23 points more Republican than the country as a whole.

He does have a challenger, who isn’t afraid of the daunting numbers (Via Refinery 29):

• Former fighter pilot Amy McGrath, who is challenging self-described “grim reaper” of progressive policy Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in the 2020 Senate race, raised an astounding $2.5 million in the first 24 hours since launching her senatorial bid, her campaign said.
• The first-day total is a new record in fundraising for Senate campaigns, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee told the New York Times. McGrath’s campaign said the $2.5 million came from about 69,000 donors. The average contribution was $36.15 per donor.
• McGrath saw her profile rise nationwide after a video announcing her candidacy for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District went viral in August 2017. In the video, McGrath explains how when she was 13, she wrote to McConnell — who was already a senator at the time — about her dream of flying fighter jets. McConnell never responded, but the ban on women flying in combat was dropped in 1993 and McGrath went on to serve in the Marines for 20 years, flying 89 combat missions and becoming a lieutenant colonel. She is the nation’s first female Marine to fly an F-18 fighter jet in combat.

The twenty acre La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club is an old school retreat for the wealthy owned by the descendants of newspaperman Frederick William Kellogg.

From an article in the La Jolla Light:

• Born in Cleveland, F.W. was the editor of the Detroit Daily News. He also created a chain of Kansas newspapers. Then he and Florence moved to California, in 1915, to start the Pasadena Evening Post and Glendale News-Press. But, according to Bill, “he got bored.” F.W. sold his newspapers to the Copley chain and retired, Bill says, spending more time at the family’s summer compound in La Jolla.
• F.W. had already co-founded the La Jolla Beach & Yacht Club, which had built a pier and dredged a channel into the harbor. So, when winter storms filled in the channel, and the Depression emptied the pockets of his fellow investors, F.W. bought them out in 1935. The idea for a new club direction came from F.W.’s son/Bill’s grandfather, William Scripps (W.S.) Kellogg.

The McConnell benefit is being held in the 1300 square foot Walnut Lounge, whose “warm and welcoming ambiance is completed by the stately fireplace and breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean.”

There are discussions about protests for the August 12th event, but logistical considerations will make an activist presence challenging. The resort boasts San Diego’s only private beach, meaning they patrol the sandy area out to the high tide mark looking for those who might not fit in with their image.

I’ll update this post, once plans are made public about whether the protests will come by land, air or sea.

The phrase “Moscow Mitch” trended on Twitter last week after the Senate majority leader blocked two attempts to pass election bills this week shortly after former special counsel Robert Mueller testified before lawmakers on Capitol Hill, warning that foreign governments likely will attempt to interfere in the 2020 elections.

Sludge, an investigative outlet that focuses on money in politics reported that McConnell received a slew of donations from four of the top voting machine lobbyists in the country so far in 2019.

The bills rejected by the Senate Majority Leader would likely have burdened the two largest electronic voting machine vendors in the United States, Election Systems & Software and Dominion Voting Systems, with new regulations and financial burdens. Together, the companies make up about 80% of all voting machines used in the country and both have far-reaching lobbying arms in Washington D.C.

Finally, as his nomination by President Trump to lead a U.S. trade agency has stalled in the Senate, Darrell Issa is eyeing a return to Congress. Should the federal corruption case involving GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter lead to a resignation or a retirement sources have told numerous media outlets the former Oversight and Reform Committee chairman is considering a bid for California’s 50th Congressional District.

Issa’s hosting of the McConnell event will help to raise his profile with the GOP. A solid protest may serve to remind both the former Congressman and the local GOP about why Issa retired at the start of the year.