Judge Dismisses Issa's 10 million$ Defamation Suit ag Opponent Applegate

This was mentioned fast on the tv news here on Thurs, and I've intermiitently been able to pull up a longer report at the La Jolla Light since. Today I can't pull up the LJ Light piece and the SD Union, which controls the print story, not accessible for me. Perhaps a more skilled DUer can list a link to this truly up cheering(!) story.

This was a tentative Superior Court ruling ag Darrell Issa on Thurs(3/9/17) that was supposed to be finalized on Friday; I cannot find any Friday info on the development.

The tough Doug Applegate campaign against the long entrenched Darrell Issa was difficult in a media market highly dominated by conservative print and tv and excruciatingly late coming $ support from the DCCC.. However Applegate, a truly grass roots, bold speaking candidate built enormous local support among his constituents and used his limited advertising resources against Issa so wisely..

These two ads (that Issa sued him over) were textbook examples of how to advertise against a dug in Republican. Especially Applegate's ad megaphoning Issa's vote against the 911 Responders Bill. If Dems would run ads simply describing a Repub's voting record, all stomach turning to decent people, as Applegate so smartly did, then all Repubs would have a hard time holding onto their seats. The Judge's tentative dismissal on Thurs found this Applegate's ad true/factual, the Judge stating simply that Issa did in fact vote ag the 911 First Reponders Bill.


Applegate will run again and, I predict, win in 2018. District 49 is definitely becoming more Democratic in the last 2 years, and Applegate's support is a wonderful coalition of an increasing demographic of coastal liberals, fair play minorities and, in this case, patriotic military (for whom an anti 911 Responders vote is just not acceptable).

Lesson to Dems...if you want to defeat a Republican incumbent, just run factual ads on his/her atrocious voting record. And lesson to Repubs...be careful what hateful votes you make, because they will come back to haunt you from a smart and strategic opponent. Lawsuits, like Issa just waged against Applegate, will not knee cap an opponent with $10 million threats nor will courts protect Repubs from opponent campaigns based on the facts of their sadistic voting histories.