Issa sues Applegate

Congressman Darrell Issa, who represents portions of northern San Diego County, has filed a defamation lawsuit against his opponent, democratic challenger Doug Applegate.

Issa filed the suit on November 7, one day before he narrowly defeated Applegate to keep his 49th district congressional seat. According to election results, Applegate defeated the democratic challenger in San Diego County by a margin of 8000 votes. However, Issa outperformed Applegate in southern Orange County by nearly 11,000 votes.

In recent months, the campaign took an ugly turn as eight-term congressman Issa fought what was the closest race in his political career.

In the lawsuit, Issa claims Applegate knowingly lied in hopes of harming Issa's reputation in two campaign ads.

The first was a television commercial that first aired on September 20, 2016. The ad cites an August 2011 New York Times article titled, "A Businessman in Congress Helps His District and Himself." Issa, however, says Applegate's ad injected their own fake headline and sub header that accused the congressman of using his position to earmark road repairs near several properties he owns. (Issa is reportedly the wealthiest member of Congress with an estimated worth of over $215 million.)

Reads the complaint, "By juxtaposing an image of the article (or at least images that report to represent the article) with the statements identified, the advertisement falsely and misleadingly leads viewers to believe that the statements are quoted from an article in The New York Times.... Yet, as a review of the article reflects, the words in quotation marks featured in the 9/20 advertisement do not appear anywhere in the article."

According to Issa, the article had several errors that the paper later corrected.

Despite that, as a result of the campaign ad, other publications, including the San Diego Union-Tribune picked up the story. According to Issa's lawsuit, his campaign demanded the ad be pulled, which television stations later agreed to do.

The second infraction, according to the complaint, aired in an October 4 television commercial that accused Issa of opposing legislation aimed at helping September 11, 2001, victims, and emergency responders.

Issa says he and 160 other congressional representatives opposed a small portion of the bill. An amended version of the bill was later passed.

Reads the lawsuit, "Beyond misrepresenting the nature of the vote...the [advertisement] is additionally false and misleading in that it fails to mention congressman Issa's strong record of leadership on national security and supporting the victims, families, and first responders of 9/11."

Issa is asking for compensatory relief as well as attorney fees.

The Issa campaign did not respond to a request for comment as to whether the lawsuit will be dropped now that the election is over.