Big-money donors win if Darrell Issa prevails

As Republican congressman Darrell Issa closes in on a possible run for the Speaker of the House to replace resigned John Boehner, some of his big-money donors stand to win big if he prevails.

Through June, this year’s contributor of the largest single amount to the Darrell Issa Victory Fund is Dede Wilsey of San Francisco, with $100,200 on April 15. She is the daughter of Wiley T. Buchanan, onetime ambassador to Austria and Luxembourg, as well as chief of protocol during the administration of Dwight Eisenhower, and the great-granddaughter of Dow Chemical founder Herbert Henry Dow. Besides Issa, her giving has extended to the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, for which she raised $190 million to pay for earthquake repairs.

A 2005 tell-all memoir entitled Oh the Glory of It All, about the Auntie Mame–like character by stepson Sean Wilsey accused her of turning him into a juvenile delinquent and breaking up the marriage of his father and mother. “A fact checker from the New Yorker called the other day, and every fact they checked with me was wrong,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Other big recent Issa donors include ex–L.A. mayor Richard Riordan with $10,000 and William Isaac of Sarasota, Florida, who kicked in $11,043. He was chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the Reagan era.