Five Democrats seeking to replace Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, were invited to face questions about the strength of their campaigns. Only one, Mike Levin, took part.

Two candidates, Sara Jacobs and Paul Kerr, said they were concerned that the event, which was hosted by a political committee, violated election laws.

Levin and the committee said their lawyers determined that all rules were followed.

A forum designed to vet, scrutinize and evaluate Democrats running for Rep. Darrell Issa’s congressional seat hit a major snag when only one candidate participated, a setback in an effort to cull weaker candidates from a packed race.

Only Mike Levin, an attorney from San Juan Capistrano, took part.

Three other Democrats sat out, and one more — attorney Christina Prejean of San Carlos — announced that she was dropping out of the race shortly after the forum began.

Two candidates, Paul Kerr of Rancho Santa Fe and Sara Jacobs of Encinitas, both said they had ethical concerns about attending the forum, an event organized by Flip the 49th, a political committee, and grassroots organization Indivisible Ocean Hills. They expressed concern about funding for the political committee.


“If the Republicans were to attend a forum hosted by the Koch brothers, we would rightfully call them out for this,” Kerr said in a Facebook post made hours before the forum in Oceanside was scheduled to begin.

The political committee, Flip the 49th, has received funding from celebrities like Jane Fonda and Jay Leno and unions like the Service Employees International Union Local 221.

Jacobs said there was a concern that participating in Friday’s forum would violate rules that prohibit certain political groups from coordinating their spending with candidates.

“This decision comes after receiving legal advice that the campaign could be at risk of an ethical violation because Flip the 49th! Neighbors in Action does not have a ‘firewall’ between staffs working on their independent expenditure and their coordinated candidate actions,” Jacobs campaign said in a statement.


Democrat Doug Applegate’s campaign did not return a request for comment, but in a Facebook post before the forum, Applegate, an attorney from Oceanside and Issa’s opponent in 2016, announced that he was hosting a last-minute meet-and-greet with voters at a brewery.

Flip the 49th and Levin both said they received legal opinions that showed that candidates would not break any rules by participating in the forum.

“We checked with two attorneys and we feel very confident that there was neither a legal nor ethical problem,” Terra Lawson-Remer, an officer at Flip the 49th, said by phone. “We wouldn’t have moved forward if we thought there was any risk of that.”

Parke Skelton, a consultant working for Levin, said he thinks that the other candidates cited legal concerns because they were afraid of being scrutinized in such a public and unforgiving way.


“The legal issue is just a cover,” Skelton said over the phone. “There’s some other reason that Sara and Doug and Paul did not want to go — which I have not yet been able to ascertain. I think that this legal argument is just absurd.”

Before Prejean dropped out, Democrats had five candidates running. Republicans have eight, including Assemblyman Rocky Chávez of Oceanside, Board of Equalization Member Diane Harkey of Dana Point and San Diego County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar of Encinitas.

The current standing has Democrats worried that California’s top-two primary system could allow two Republicans to advance to the general election, leaving no Democrat on the ballot.

Prejean, an Air Force veteran, received a standing ovation when she announced she was ending her campaign. She had been polling last among Democrats.


“As a proud Democrat and progressive, we are all on the same team, and our mission here is to flip the 49th,” she said at the forum. “That’s why with such a crowded field of candidates in this race, I decided the best way for me to accomplish this mission is for me to step out of the race.”

The Oceanside event was intended as a chance for voters to evaluate a campaign’s strengths and weaknesses rather than a candidate’s platform in an attempt to show who has the best chance of winning the district.

Applegate was questioned, in absentia, how he would survive negative attacks about his divorce that dogged him when he ran in 2016. Jacobs was asked if she would drop out and support another Democrat.

Jacobs, the granddaughter of Irwin Jacobs, the co-founder of Qualcomm, has put $1 million of her own money into her campaign. Her campaign did not return a request for comment.


Kerr, a businessman who can also self-fund his campaign, was asked if he had any chance of winning without attacking other Democrats. Polls have put him in fourth place in his party.

Kerr said his own life story as a kid from a working-class family who joined the Navy, held minimum-wage jobs and worked through college before becoming a successful businessman, will click with voters.

“Once voters hear my unique story and my firsthand experience with all of the issues we care so deeply about, I am confident that we will win in both June and November,” he said in a statement.

Levin was asked if there’s any way he can gain more support.


“I know there’s no substitute for getting out to a community and doing direct voter contact,” he said.

He said he has contacted every Democrat and independent voter once, and will do so at least one more time before polls open.

While only one candidate showed up, Lawson-Remer said the forum still served its purpose.

“What we wanted to do is something we achieved: to let community members make their own assessment,” she said.


And while only Levin participated, Flip the 49th will support whichever Democrat makes it through the primary, she said.


Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

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