Jane Fonda Donates $100K To Defeat California GOP Representative Darrell Issa
Image Credit: Vanity Fair
Original Article | Author: Susan Crabtree
Jane Fonda has donated $100,000 to a political group solely aimed at defeating California GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country.
Fonda's contribution amounts to nearly one-quarter of the group's total $440,000 haul for the year.
The group's top donors include Academy Award winner Leonardo DiCaprio, comedian Bill Maher, actor Ted Danson and former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.). Maher donated $15,000, DiCaprio and Boxer doled out $2,500 each, and Danson cut a $1,500 check, according to a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Jay Leno also contributed $2,500 through his JDM Foundation, an organization that Leno funds along with contributions from auto-racing companies.
Flip the 49th! Neighbors in Action, the group in question, did not immediately respond to a question about whether Fonda's funding could backfire by motivating more veterans or current members of the military to turn out and support Issa.
Fonda, now 79, earned the nickname "Hanoi Jane" from Vietnam veterans for visiting Hanoi in 1972 as an anti-war protester in 1972 where she posed for photos on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft battery.
There is a strong military and veteran presence in the district, located in North County San Diego, including the mammoth Marine base of Camp Pendleton, where nearly 100,000 Marines are stationed.
Doug Applegate, a retired Marine colonel and Democrat, nearly defeated Issa in the 2016 contest. Issa won by just 1,621 votes. Applegate is running again and is engaged a bitter primary contest against Mike Levin, an environmentalist lawyer with support from national Democrats such as Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.).
Republicans have a voter registration advantage in the coastal district, 37 percent to Democrats' 31 percent, but Democrats say anti-Trump sentiment across the state and within the district will help swing the turn-out Democrats' way.
Flip the 49th purports to be a "grassroots" organization, referring to itself as a "comprehensive, community, political, leadership and organizing committee" aimed at ousting Issa from office, according to its website.
Organizers have said roughly 40 percent of its donations come from residents in Orange and San Diego counties, which are included in the boundaries of the congressional district.
