Attempts to restrict peaceful protests outside the district office of embattled Rep. Darrell Issa (R-49th District) have failed.
The City of Vista Wednesday, June 28 issued a three-month permit this week allowing the rallies to continue. The weekly protests, launched as Resist Trump Tuesdays after the January inauguration, have become the largest and longest-running congressional rallies in the nation, regularly drawing 300–to- 800 citizens.
Following a July 4th break for public outreach on the Republican health care bill, the rallies will resume on the sidewalk outside Issa’s office building, where he infamously climbed on the roof to view the protesters.
Issa wrote two letters, on May 30 and June 21, calling on the Vista mayor and city council to take action on the protests. Issa said protests posed “dangers for passing traffic” and made unsubstantiated — and disputed — claims that protestors damaged property.
The ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties issued a June 1 letter to city officials criticizing conditions imposed on protesters as “inappropriate and unconstitutional” for denying access to the public sidewalk, restricting use of a sound system and threatening an individual organizer with fees for police services.
“Every Tuesday this summer, Darrell Issa is welcome to climb up on the roof and see that his constituents won’t rest until he is defeated in 2018,” Indivisible 49 organizer Ellen Montanari said.
“Issa’s vote for the immoral Republican health care plan sealed his fate,” Montanari said. “Let him stand on the roof and see the women with cancer, the veterans with disabilities, the parents of special needs kids and all the other District 49 voters who will not forget that he sold us out to give tax breaks to the super-rich. Thanks to the ACLU and the City of Vista, our constitutional right to protest is alive and well and we will exercise our First Amendment right to freedom of speech.”
Issa is widely considered the most vulnerable Republican in the House of Representatives, having squeaked by his 2016 Democratic opponent in the closest race in the country. His vote for the American Health Care Act, which is wildly unpopular in his district, made him the national poster boy of congressional Republicans likely to sacrifice their seats for supporting Donald Trump.
Protest Tuesday, June 27 at Darrell Issa’s Vista hideout, er office.
I congratulate the City of Vista for upholding the Constitution by granting the anti-Issa demonstrators’ a permit. I also congratulate the “Grapevine” for its thorough coverage by acknowledging that the claims of damage were unsubstantiated. Having participated in these demonstrations for months, I know how careful the organizers are to respect the property and the safety of motorists and pedestrians. We seek to draw attention to Issa’s failures to represent us, his constituents, by continually putting party (and his loyalty to Donald Trump) over country. His vote to rob thousands of his constituents of their health coverage shows clearly how little he values us. In 2018, when Doug Applegate replaces him, justice will be done for the 49th district.