Diane Jacob gives chunk of campaign fund to sheriffs, what they do with the money

Politically incorrect

Republican county supervisor Dianne Jacob, ending her career later this year due to term limits, is giving away wads of cash from her well-stocked campaign fund. Jacob collected the money over the years from a bevy of special interests seeking favorable board votes. During the first half of this year, District Two incumbent Jacob handed out $131, 916, leaving her political fund with $366,275 in cash for additional expenditures. The political action committee of the San Diego Deputy Sheriffs’ Association — whose president David Leonhardi lambasted law enforcement critics in a June 17 Union-Tribune op-ed erroneously suggesting eight officers had died during recent protests across the nation — got $25,000.

“Over the past weeks, the duty to protect and serve our communities has been tainted and called into question.” wrote Leonhardi. “When deputies get up in the morning, after having worked a 12-hour shift the previous day defending our public buildings and those who serve in them, it’s hard not to feel the aches and pain from the countless bottles, bricks, rocks and insults hurled at us just the day before. Still, we put on our uniforms, kiss our families, and head out to protect and serve the community.”

The deputies’ association has endorsed Poway Mayor Steve Vaus, favored by Jacob, over GOP former state senator Joel Anderson to succeed her in November. Besides the deputies’ money, the Jacob fund gave $49,000 to a PAC called Public Safety Advocates. Other five-figure donors to that PAC include the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association, Lucky Lady Cardroom, ex-state Senate Democrat Steve Peace, and the United Medical Marijuana Coalition PAC. Expense disclosure reports show the PAC spent $150,265 in February on media opposing Anderson’s supervisorial bid. Among other gifts and expenses, the Jacob committee shelled out $10,000 for a poll by J. Wallen Opinion Research of Newport Beach and donated $25,000 to the nonprofit Scripps Mercy Foundation.

A couple of hit pieces

One-time National City denizen Christy Walton is among the biggest donors to the Lincoln Project. Co-founded by George Conway (husband of White House advisor Kellyanne Conway), the anti-Trump Super PAC has deployed hard-hitting ads against the president in swing states and Washington, D.C, as well as online. Worth an estimated $9.1 billion, Walton inherited a sizable chunk of Walmart stock when her husband John Walton, then the eleventh richest man in the world, died in a 2005 experimental plane crash at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. A part-time resident of National City with his wife, he came up with $100,000 for a group led by Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs in a failed 2000 effort employing a volley of hit pieces to bring down incumbent school board member Fran Zimmerman. She was a critic of ultimately ousted San Diego city school superintendent Alan Bersin.

Last month Trump tweeted that the Lincoln Project’s backers are “all LOSERS,” adding, “Their so-called Lincoln Project is a disgrace to Honest Abe. I don’t know what Kellyanne did to her deranged loser of a husband, Moonface, but it must have been really bad.”

In addition to her political proclivities, Christy Walton has been identified in news accounts as the principal financial backer of Rose Canyon Fisheries, more recently known as Pacific Oceans Aquafarms, a controversial San Diego fish farming startup by the nonprofit Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute. Other charitable causes listed on her webpage include the San Diego Natural History Museum and UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Movers and protein shakers

American Medical Response, the city of San Diego’s incumbent paramedic provider now in a heated battle to retain its contract, gave $5996 worth of Zone Perfect nutrition bars on June 16 to the city’s convention center homeless dormitory, called Operation Shelter to Home. The paramedic company gave $4621 in 40 cases of Zone Perfect bars, along with 60 cases of Lucerna Shakes on June 8, all at the behest of Mayor Kevin Faulconer. His office is currently handling the paramedic contest.

Aimee Faucett,

chief of staff for mayor Kevin Faulconer, pulled in some quick cash from the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee, according to the group’s disclosure for the first half of the year, filed July 11. The document reveals that $5000 was spent February 17 on “Aimee Faucett & Others” for an unidentified purpose. The Sacramento Bee’s Voter Guide shows that Faucett, identified as the San Diego “mayor’s chief advisor,” was a winning candidate for the San Diego Republican Party County Central Committee in the March primary election with 8 percent of the vote. Her fellow mayoral staffer, Francis Barraza, got elected to the panel with 7.3 percent. Topping the list of six victors in a field of 18 was Richard Bailey, mayor of Coronado, garnering 13.8 percent. Big money donors to the chamber PAC included trash hauler Republic Services ($10,000); real estate giant H.G Fenton ($20,000) and Kilroy Realty ($10,000).

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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