By George E. Condon Jr. and Finlay Lewis
WASHINGTON – Members of the House from San Diego County held firm in their positions on the financial bailout bill that was approved Friday, four days after its defeat triggered a steep stock market decline.
Four of the five remained steadfastly opposed, while only Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, supported it. The four opponents were Democrat Bob Filner of San Diego and Republicans Duncan Hunter of Alpine, Darrell Issa of Vista and Brian Bilbray of Carlsbad.
Provisions added to the measure by the Senate on Wednesday persuaded many previously opposed lawmakers to embrace it.
But Hunter, Issa and Bilbray said the changes only reinforced their opposition, stating they were offended by sweeteners added to the bill in the Senate.
Issa said the feedback he was getting from his district changed after Monday's defeat. “Before that vote, I was being contacted by constituents. After the vote, I was being contacted by donors,” he said. “Instead of people seeing it wasn't doing anything for them, we were seeing people whose credit markets were being locked up and whose companies were going to be adversely impacted.”
He also got a phone call from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a longtime ally who wanted the bailout to pass to help the state finance its debt. But Issa turned him down, saying the bill had been made worse by the Senate.
Filner reported a similar shift in district feedback after Monday, which he blamed on the “scare tactics” of backers. “My mail still stayed negative, not as negative as it was before,” he said, adding he received many e-mails from district Realtors wanting him to change his vote.
Davis said she observed a substantial uptick in support for the bailout from her constituents since her vote on Monday.
The majority of calls to her office still urged her to vote against the bill but she added that “we began to hear more nuanced calls and people calling in with some stories that really were pretty heart breaking.” Included were accounts from small business owners alarmed by a dramatic tightening in the local credit market.
Bilbray said he was hoping for a Senate version that he could support and added that he was heartened by some of the changes, including language that will provide a temporary boost in the limit on federal insurance for bank deposits from $100,000 to $250,000. But, he argued, that was outweighed by other tax giveaways that he said “sort of degrades the crisis we're in.”
“We have to say no sometimes,” Bilbray insisted. “I'm willing to say yes but it has to be a yes I can justify. The more I dug into it, the more I started to run into things I couldn't justify and explain when I got home.”
