Irwin Jacobs funds PAC attacking Trump on coronavirus

Faulconer’s COVID-19 bust

Add San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer to the list of locals hit directly in the pocketbook by the coronavirus shutdown of San Diego’s tourist business. Last year, Restaurant Events, the convention-related food, booze, and entertainment booking agency operated by the mayor’s wife Katherine Stuart Faulconer, hauled in over $100,000, according to Faulconer’s latest financial disclosure report, filed March 30. The business, which arranges to close downtown city streets for private parties, is valued at between $100,000 and $1 million, the document says. Sources of 2019 revenue to the firm totaling more than $10,000 each were Cold Beer and Cheeseburgers, the Cohn Restaurant Group, Union Kitchen, Machu Picchu, and Sevilla. The current pandemic has shuttered all.

In the way of gifts to the mayor, the Mexican government forked over $1170 to cover Faulconer’s June 2019 trip to Los Cabos in Baja California Sur for the North American Mayors’ Summit. Besides that, he picked up $2164 in the form of “lodging reimbursement for Challenged Athletes Foundation Million Dollar Challenge fundraising ride,” according to the report. The athletes’ foundation is said to provide “prosthetics and direct assistance to children, adults, and wounded veterans with physical challenges and disabilities.”

Faulconer has appeared in television promotions for the group. The mayor received a $250 admission to the Gold Key Awards from the Hotel-Motel Association on February 19 of last year, along with a $98 pass to the California Restaurant Association’s San Diego chapter Gold Medallion event on May 30, 2019. He got a $100 ticket on March 19 of last year to watch the Sacramento Kings, the basketball team co-owned by members of the wealthy La Jolla clan led by Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs, and $132 worth of tickets to 2019’s Comic-Con. During 2018, Faulconer collected total pay and benefits of $120,652 in his mayoral compensation package, according to TransparentCalifornia.com.

Diminished priorities

As a big money pro-Democratic political action committee prepares to rip into Republican President Donald Trump over his handling of the COVID-19 epidemic, a familiar local name is among its billionaire funders. Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs and his wife Joan Jacobs each kicked in $50,000 on January 15 to Priorities USA, according to the latest federal disclosure records. The PAC is currently rolling out TV spots bashing Trump, featuring nurses and doctors complaining about lack of medical supplies and other federal support during the crisis, reports CNN. The group has endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for President.

Priorities says it aims to collect a total of $150 million before the summer’s Democratic Convention, but the coronavirus-related stock market crash has reduced the giving power of many major contributors. “I am not sure what other donors are feeling but for me, political donations have not been top of mind the last two weeks,” Robert Wolf, a Wall Street maven and Priorities fundraiser told Fortune. “I have been focusing on the health and well-being of my family, friends and the community, working on my business from home, and giving to some charitable organizations on the front lines of the crisis.” Meanwhile, among other favorite causes of Jacobs is the high-dollar campaign of granddaughter Sarah Jacobs against San Diego city councilwoman Georgette Gomez, a fellow Democrat, for the 53rd District House seat that Susan Davis is vacating.

No defibrillators by any other name

San Diego’s city council has approved a five-year endorsement deal with AED Brands featuring a total minimum take for the City of $787,500. Under the arrangement, the City has become AED’s “official Automated External Defibrillator Partner,” per a February 14 staff report. “AED Brands will provide an annual marketing fee and sales stipends to support San Diego Fire Rescue’s San Diego Project Heart Beat.” The report adds that “marketing rights and benefits provided to AED Brands, LLC under this agreement include the right to be designated and referred to as the ‘Official AED Partner of the City of San Diego,’ and this designation to be used in marketing efforts; logo placement on official City vehicles, and webpages. In addition, they will have the right to participate with [San Diego Project Heart Beat] in a minimum of three national trade shows, city-hosted health and safety events, and speaking engagements. Lastly, the right to promote the partnership when offering products and services to businesses, municipalities, and school districts and the exclusive AED products featured for all sales opportunities from grants awarded by the city to not-for-profit organizations.” ...Eight so-called Military Treatment Facilities were visited by auditors, but the document made public blacked out each of their names on security grounds. Don’t expect to find anything about the Navy Hospital in Balboa Park, but a few references in the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General report released April 6 provide some intriguing details. “The central energy plant at a major Navy medical center was easily accessible through a large door that was left open and unattended; a member of the audit team entered and walked through the facility undetected and unchallenged,” says the audit report. “Access to fuel tanks and backup generators by unauthorized personnel increases the risk of damage, sabotage, or acts of terrorism, potentially resulting in failure of medical equipment and loss of life.”