Dishonest heiress, Sara JacobsCalifornia's 53rd congressional district offers Democrats an opportunity to flip a district-- not from red to blue but from pale blue to deep, beautiful blue. The incumbent congresswoman, centrist New Dem Susan Davis, is retiring, and although there 11 Democrats running, the race seems to be coming down to San Diego City Council President and district-shopping, female mini-Bloomberg, Sara Jacobs, who we've run into before.The compact district includes the eastern half of San Diego, from Serra Mesa, Mission Valley, Balboa Park and El Cajon, through La Mesa and Lemon Grove, almost as far south as San Ysidro on the Mexican border. It's ethnically diverse, 40% white, 34% Latinx, 13% Asian and 8% African-American. The PVI is D+14 but Obama won it both times with around 64% and Hillary beat Trump 64.5% to 29.6%. Davis was elected in 2000 and has never had a competitive reelection battle.The last time Jacobs ran for Congress, it was in the Orange County/San Diego County district that Darrell Issa had abandoned as "too blue." It also turned out to be "too blue" for the Qualcomm heiress. She spent gigantically in the primary-- $2,714,931, of which $2,125,798 (78%) came out of personal money her family gave her. The biggest single candidate expenditure-- by FAR (like nearly by a factor of 10!)-- that EMILY's List made-- $2,362,544-- in 2018 was for Jacobs. They sure love supporting rich women with big rolodexes, richer the better, which has become their top priority and their trademark. All those millions of dollars bought her just 28,778 votes. That's $176.43 per vote. At what point will trashy rich politicians like Jacobs and Bloomberg just directly hand out $100 bills to voters on their way to the polls?Jacobs is still up to her old tricks, pretending to be a progressive, while involved with swimming in PhRMA and bankster money. Her investments make her one of the most conflicted politicians in history, with immense investments in Merck, Gilead and Medtronic. She may be promising lower pharmaceutical costs and universalish health care, but when these companies make money, her wealth increases. Same with her tens of millions invested with some of the most predatory banks and hedge funds on Wall Street. It makes it hard to believe her when she whines about "the inequalities in our current economic system" and how they "didn't happen by accident. They are the result of a concerted, long-term effort by powerful special interests-- and the Members of Congress they bankroll-- to write the rules in a way that benefit themselves," no doubt why her grandfather is spending so many millions trying to get her into Congress-- as well as $2.25 million on the anti-Bernie SuperPAC.If you've been reading DWT coverage about Jacobs for the last few years, none of this is new to you. But I found a couple of interesting local San Diego reports that are new to me, so maybe to you too. The Union-Tribune caught her lying about her resume, which she is doing again this cycle, hoping the voters are too stupid to figure out what a phony she is. She pretended to have a high-level job in the Obama administration. In reality she was given junior make-work job to please the rich grandfather/campaign donor, something that was exposed when she got caught up in the wikileaks papers as a humorous footnote.Union-Tribune reporter Joshua Stewart wrote that "Jacobs called herself a 'policy maker' who worked at the State Department under President Barack Obama [and Hillary]. But Jacobs was a junior-level government contractor who was prohibited by federal regulations from making policy." In other words, she lied to make herself look important, a trait that Congress doesn't need more of. She even released an ad claiming she was an expert in international affairs. On MSNBC she boasted, falsely, as the very rich always feel entitled to do (and as Trump and Bloomberg always do) that "I worked at the State Department under President Obama and her deceitful website "says she was a 'policy maker' who worked in 'key policy positions at the State Department.'"
Jacobs actually worked for 19 months at IEA Corporation, a firm that counts the State Department as one of its clients. She worked in State Department office space alongside government employees, and was involved in projects that focused on security in sub-Saharan Africa.While she hasn’t mentioned the contractor during her campaign, she listed her employment at IEA on a resume she e-mailed to John Podesta, the head of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president, that was hacked and later published on WikiLeaks.Like Bloomberg, Sara Jacobs is trying to mislead voters about her Obama connectionAnd although Jacobs referred to herself as policymaker on the campaign trail and used that claim as a point to distinguish herself from other candidates, her former supervisor said that Jacobs did not create policy. Rather, Jacobs held a position slightly above entry-level and she conducted analysis and reports that were later used by people several steps above her who could make policy, according to her supervisor at the time, Cindy Huang.“My understanding of the regulations is that contractors can conduct research and provide advice and recommendations, and ideas, but they cannot be decision makers in the policy process,” Huang said.Huang, who now works for a think tank that specializes in international development, also appeared in a recent commercial by the Jacobs campaign at the state Department, and the campaign connected her to the Union-Tribune for an interview where she spoke very favorably of Jacobs’ abilities to conduct analysis and offer advice.Jacobs’ spokeswoman said that while she told Podesta she worked as a contractor it’s more transparent to not mention that detail to voters.“[T]he way we describe her position to voters is the most accurate and transparent about what she did every day,” Jacobs’ spokeswoman, Chelsea Brossard, said in an email.“She was heavily involved in the policy making process, which includes advising, so it would be accurate to say that was an experienced policy maker,” Brossard said. “Of course all of the advice she offered needed to go up the chain of command for decisions, as would be true anywhere in government.”While Jacobs’ actual resume diverges with her claims on the campaign trail, she has worked in international affairs. She studied international relations as an undergraduate, and has a master’s degree in international security policy and international conflict resolution from Columbia University.She has worked both as a regular employee and as an intern at United Nations departments, and at UNICEF as well. She most recently founded a non-profit organization that measures internet access at schools around the world in an effort to increase connectivity.If Jacobs is elected and serves the term to completion, her two years in Congress would be the longest she has held a job, according to her resume. Between various internships and regular positions, Jacobs had about 35 months of international affairs experience before she started at IEA in February 2014. She stayed with the contractor for about 19 months, and then later worked for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
More recently, the Times of San Diego caught her lying about something else. Reporter Chris Jennewein wrote that Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party-- which is backing San Diego City Council President Georgette Gómez-- accused Jacobs of "attempting to mislead voters about the party’s official endorsement."
Will Rodriguez-Kennedy said wording on both a mailer and a door hanger includes the words “endorsed by California Democrats” with a red-white-and-blue donkey logo.City Council President Georgette Gómez is the candidate who was endorsed by both state and local Democratic parties in the race to succeed nine-term Rep. Susan Davis in the 53rd District.“We find it deeply disappointing that Sara Jacobs is trying to fool voters,” said Rodriguez-Kennedy at an afternoon press conference at party headquarters in Murphy Canyon.“She is doing this because she lost the Democratic Party endorsement,” he said. “This is a strategy that has been executed by some of the best political consultants.”Rodriguez-Kennedy was joined in his remarks by Jess Durfee, chair of the western region caucus of the Democratic National Committee.“It is important to set this record straight,” said Durfee. “It was always very obvious and undisputed that Georgette Gómez was the endorsed candidate.”Rodriguez-Kennedy said he asking the Jacobs campaign to change the wording, noting that "our party and our voters are very forgiving."
Like I said, there are a lot of candidates-- even a lot of progressive candidates. We're heavy on the trail of who would be best for Blue America to endorse. Stay tuned; it won't be a plutocrat... or a liar.Jacobs is proud to be endorsed by Abby Finkenauer, one of Congress' worst freshmen, who also endorsed Status Quo Joe, just before he started his losing streak
