Goes both ways

San Diego — The National Republican Congressional Committee has launched a barrage of negative TV spots against 50th Congressional District Democratic candidate Francine Busby in order to soften her up for June's runoff against ex-GOP congressman Brian Bilbray. The first of the ads asserts that Busby is beholden to special interests and features a background of rapidly passing names of Busby campaign donors, including that of Qualcomm chairman and founder Irwin Jacobs. As it turns out, Jacobs, a nominal Democrat, is also partial to the GOP when it comes to doling out campaign money. Besides letting the Republican National Committee have free use of the Qualcomm corporate jet to the tune of $17,488 over the past five years, federal campaign finance records show that Jacobs personally gives $5000 a year to Qualcomm's Political Action Committee, which in turn has faithfully backed such GOP stalwarts as congressmen Darrell Issa and Duncan Hunter, as well as the ousted Randy "Duke" Cunningham. The PAC's top single donation, $9000, went to San Bernardino GOP congressman Jerry Lewis, who's been plagued with his own share of ethics problems.