Irwin Jacobs Goes Republican Hunting

Irwin Jacobs goes Republican hunting Who are San Diego’s heaviest super PAC hitters this election season? Of course, first place must go to Qualcomm founder and La Jolla billionaire Irwin Jacobs, with his cool $2 million contribution on June 11 to Priorities USA Action, a super PAC backing the reelection of President Barack Obama. The principal proponent of the controversial top-down Balboa Park road and traffic makeover, the liberal Jacobs has also kicked in $100,000 to American Bridge 21st Century, which bills itself as “a progressive research and communications organization committed to holding Republicans accountable for their words and actions and helping you ascertain when Republican candidates are pretending to be something they’re not.”

Regarding GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan, American Bridge recently opined: “Despite Boston’s best etch-a-sketching efforts to distance Mitt Romney from the extremely unpopular views of his running mate, the truth remains that on everything from ending Medicare as it’s always been to banning abortion even in cases of rape and incest, Romney and Ryan are one and the same.”

Major local donors at the other end of the political spectrum from Jacobs include his fellow La Jollan Anne Phillips, whose occupation is listed as “mom” and her employer “kids.” She gave $70,000 to the conservative Club for Growth Action PAC on June 21; retired Point Loma physician Phillips L. Gausewitz contributed $5000 to the group in April. Last week the club announced it was spending $800,000 on a TV campaign against Democratic congressman Joe Donnelly’s U.S. Senate bid in Indiana. “Joe Donnelly supports the Obama agenda wholeheartedly — he voted for ObamaCare, the Obama stimulus, and the Wall Street bailout. Since Joe Donnelly went to Congress, the national debt is up seven trillion dollars. It’s not surprising considering that Donnelly is a Washington liberal who supported Nancy Pelosi for speaker.”

The Jacobs-backed American Bridge PAC has similarly attacked Donnelly’s GOP opponent: “Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock’s new ad laughably states that if elected ‘he’ll work with Republicans and Democrats,’” says American Bridge. “Nice try, but we’re not buying it. There are countless instances of Mourdock decrying bipartisanship in Washington throughout this very campaign. He even said flat out ‘we don’t need bipartisanship.’”