by Bill Wells, Mayor of the City of El 
As the Mayor of El Cajon and a former candidate for Congress in the 50th Congressional district I am passionate about who will replace Duncan Hunter and represent all of us in Washington. I’ve long known that this time of change could be a period of great danger to our way of life and to the ideas and values that propel so many of us.
I am sure you are aware of how rare a place the voters of the 50th hold in California political life. Surrounded by progressives on all sides, the 50th has been able to maintain a place of solid conservatism. It is important that we are mindful of this when we make our votes next month. I have come to believe that only Darrell Issa can maintain our conservative political significance. It is not trivial; it is perhaps that last chance that California has to maintain resistance to overwhelming forces of the left.
But isn’t Carl DeMaio a conservative? Well, the answer is yes and no, but mostly no. He claims the mantle of conservatism based upon his fiscal ideas, but being a conservative is about so much more than money and taxes. For those paying attention, Carl DeMaio has been telling anyone who will listen that it is time for the Republican Party to jettison ideas, that in his mind hold us back; ideas like opposition to abortion and belief that President Trump is the right man to lead us in our battle for America and against toxic radical leftism. In fact, he has been overtly vocal in his opposition to President Trump, calling him names and taking on the position of being a “Never Trumper”. However, now that he finds himself running in a district that overwhelmingly supported and supports President Trump, he is sending out mailers stating that he is a supporter of the President. Another reversal is his claim that he is pro-life when the record has shown that he has always been pro-abortion.
Darrell Issa is a full and total conservative. He has a history of 18 years in Congress, aggressively fighting for our values and holding liberals accountable for their actions. You may remember Benghazi and how Darrell Issa was the defender of the truth in that liberal debacle. Most importantly, right now, he has a history of defending the President and our right to elect the person we want to lead us. The Democrats are Hell bent on overturning our votes and we need a proven ally of the President to make sure that does not happen. He will fight against impeachment and any other attempts to circumvent the will of the people.
I decided to run for Congress in 2018 because I did not want to see the Duncan Hunter scandal result in the 50th Congressional District being represented by a politician that did not share the values of the majority of voters. In 2019 the dynamics had changed and I decided to get out of the race, because I did not want to be in any way responsible for a Carl DeMaio win. The math was pretty clear to me and I knew that I could not win, but I realized that I could possibly shave off enough fully conservative voters to prevent Darrell Issa from winning. I cared enough for the district to put my own desires aside and to get behind Issa. Frankly, Brian Jones is in exactly the same situation today and though I like and respect him, I pray that he would come to the conclusion that this race is more important than self or career.
Thank you for hearing me out on this. I know that collectively the 50th will make the right decision and put Darrell Issa back in Congress.