Familiar candidate revisits Alpine

Congressional candidate Am­mar Campa-Najjar was the fea­tured guest during a town hall meeting at the Alpine Commu­nity Center Aug. 18.

Anne Craig-Tillmond, an Al­pine resident and Campa-Najjar supporter, organized the event to demonstrate how Campa-Na­jjar would reach out to constitu­ents on a local level if elected in next year’s election against incumbent Duncan Hunter who represents the 50th district.

Craig-Tillmond told the standing-room-only gathering that the 30-year-old candidate would answer 10 questions that had been submitted by people who had registered for the event and then field questions from the rest of the audience.

Recognizing that a wide po­litical spectrum was represent­ed in the audience Campa-Naj­jar reassured everyone that he would likely anger Republicans and Democrats alike.

Campa-Najjar, who has never held elected political office, ticked off his job experience in the political realm— Deputy Re­gional Field Director for Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election cam­paign, Communications and Marketing Director for the United States Hispanic Cham­ber of Commerce, and Public Af­fairs Officer for the U.S. Depart­ment of Labor. He also empha­sized two points in his introduc­tion that he would come back to throughout the afternoon.

He said he believes in position over party and that he refuses to accept PAC money while he re­lies solely on personal donations for his campaign so that he is not beholden to special interest groups.

Campa-Najjar addressed the issue of housing affordability by stating that San Diego has the fourth largest homeless popu­lation in the country and that California is the fifth largest economy in the world, yet San Diego is 20th in HUD (Housing and Urban Development) fund­ing.

On gun legislation the lone Democrat in a crowded field of hopefuls who want to unseat Hunter, who was indicted last year for misuse of campaign funds, Campa-Najjar pointed to a policy employed by the coun­try’s military.

“If you are going to swear to protect and defend the constitu­tion, you cannot do that and dis­regard the second amendment… but here’s the thing that we can do… I like what the military does… Before you get a gun, you do a background check, you get a (psychiatric) evaluation, you go through training, and you get safe storage,” Campa-Najjar said.

Prior to the event one at­tendee, Daniel Weise, said that he has been an east county resident since 1976 and is con­cerned that Hunter relies on his family name for reelection; he was interested in hearing what Campa-Najjar would say about education at the meeting.

“Hunter is a flag waver. I was in the Marine Corps and I’m a re­tired teacher, and I’m concerned. It’s sad for me to watch the de­cline of diversity, especially for our youth,” Weise said.

Campa-Najjar said he believes students in special education programs are overlooked and went on to say that the Individu­als with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is not currently fully funded by Congress.

“A lot of the problems that we have in this country— half of it is not enforcing the laws that we already have,” Campa-Najjar said.

Campa-Najjar ran against Hunter in 2017 and lost.