Sara Jacobs aide reaches out to conservative World Vision

Saving Sara

House Democrat Sara Jacobs, facing a possibly tough reelection challenge from conservative Republican Mayor Bill Wells of El Cajon, has dispatched one of her assistants to a conference at United Nations Headquarters in New York City, courtesy of World Vision, Inc., according to a March 6 disclosure filing with the Clerk of the House. “World Vision is an international partnership of Christians whose mission is to follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice, and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God,” says the group’s mission statement.

Arion Laws, a domestic policy advisor to Jacobs, took the free, $947 two-day junket starting February 23. “As the legislative assistant for Representative Jacobs, I am responsible for advising the Representative on the foreign policy issues that will be discussed on the trip,” wrote Laws on the disclosure.

Entitled the “World Vision NYC Congressional Staff Learning Trip,” the getaway to Manhattan included a “working dinner” with World Vision Senior Director of Government Relations Lisa Bos. Per World Vision’s website, “Bos serves as the point person for World Vision’s advocacy and education efforts with Congress.” The group is seeking to overhaul the U.N.’s famine task force to include more private big money givers such as itself in its ranks.

“The International Rescue Committee, Action Against Hunger, and World Vision want the task force, established by the secretary-general in 2021, to expand its membership and include [non-governmental organizations], donors, and international financial institutions, so they have a voice in drawing up famine response plans to ensure they are more preventative,” says the website devex.com in a March 6 dispatch.

In 2014, World Vision announced it was open to hiring gay and lesbian workers who were in same-sex marriages but soon flip-flopped, as reported by the New York Times on March 27 of that year. “World Vision’s move was swiftly denounced by some prominent evangelical leaders as a ‘disaster’ and a devil-inspired betrayal of biblical morality. Christians proclaimed online that they had canceled their child sponsorships. Less than 48 hours later, World Vision reversed course, calling the decision a ‘mistake,’ and pleading for forgiveness.” Said an official World Vision statement: “We are brokenhearted over the pain and confusion we have caused many of our friends, who saw this decision as a reversal of our strong commitment to Biblical authority. We ask that you understand that this was never the board’s intent.”

On the topic of legal abortions, favored by Democrat Jacobs, World Vision says on its website: “World Vision is pro-life. We believe that life begins at conception, and World Vision does not provide, recommend or refer women for abortions or methods of birth control that are proven to be abortifacient.” In February 2018, running against then-incumbent GOP House member Duncan Hunter, El Cajon’s Wells told KFMB-TV that he opposed abortion.

Maienschein money talk

Talk about planning ahead: ex-San Diego city councilman Brian Maienschein wants to get elected as San Diego City Attorney next year. He also wants to run for California Attorney General in 2030. So shows a February 28 campaign filing for a political committee calling itself Maienschein for Attorney General 2030, which lists $5500 received February 23 from Californians for Fair Housing. Donors to that group include H.G. Fenton Company, a San Diego developer and upscale residential landlord giving $10,000 on December 5, 2022, along with a host of other apartment owners around the state.

Maienschein is termed out of his current gig as a Democratic member of the Assembly, thus explaining his need to hustle up a new job back in his hometown. If elected city attorney next year and reelected in 2028, he could run for attorney general in the middle of his final term in San Diego. Maienschein was a Republican before flipping parties on January 24, 2019...Ex-San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, who came in a dismal third in his 2022 recall gubernatorial bid against Gavin Newsom, has finally shuttered a statewide political fund that called itself Rebuilding the California Dream, San Diego Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer’s Ballot Measure Committee. On March 9, the fund’s remaining $3851.09 was given to Faulconer’s political effort, the San Diego Safe Shelters and Clean Streets Act committee, which registered with the San Diego city clerk’s office the next day.

Meantime, the committee backing Toni Atkins’s bid for Lieutenant Governor in 2026 picked up $9100 from Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria on March 20. Last year, Graton announced it wanted to expand its Rohnert Park gambling emporium, already the biggest in the Bay Area, and add another tower to its hotel. The group also raised objections to the proposed entry of another Native American group, the Koi Nation, into Sonoma County’s high-stakes casino development world...San Diego County Democratic Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, who has dropped out of next year’s race for state senate, continued until recently to tank up on special interest money for his now-ended 2024 campaign. On March 15, the Anesthesia Service Medical Group Advocacy Fund of San Diego came up with $5500.

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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