Republican congressional candidate Stan Caplan of San Diego reacted to the Oct. 12 news that Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office will investigate redistricting in the City of Los Angeles due to racially charged comments overheard at a meeting between Los Angeles City Council members and a labor union leader.
“What my experience is, particularly in some of the state redistricting, is that they tend to gerrymander a little bit and make it a little more favorable for the Democrat candidates,” Caplan told the Southern California Record.
Council President Nury Martinez slurred Councilman Mike Bonin’s 2-year-old black adopted son when she described him as a monkey during a conversation with Council members Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera.
The group was talking about how to keep Hispanic council members in office during redistricting, which occurs every 10 years, according to media reports, and the leaked remarks were posted on the internet by the Los Angeles Times. Martinez has since resigned.
“The federal redistricting actually helped me in my district, even though it’s pretty heavily Democrat-favored,” Caplan said.
A newcomer to politics, Caplan is campaigning for the 51st Congressional District seat against Democrat incumbent Sara Jacobs. He garnered 37.7% of the vote to advance out of the June 7 primary compared to Jacobs who won 60.3% of the vote.
“She is very far left and she's pretty much in lockstep with all of the progressive policies that have been passed by Congress,” Caplan said. “She has been supportive of the current Biden administration and my position is that I am 100% opposed to everything that has come out of this administration and Congress since they have been in office.”
Among Caplan’s challenges in defeating Jacobs is funding.
“She's the granddaughter of the founder of Qualcomm, who is Irwin Jacobs and she has unlimited money to put into a campaign to essentially buy her seat,” Caplan said. “In her last campaign, she put in $6.9 million of her own money.”
Jacobs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“She is not representative of the voters in the district,” Caplan added. “I came to the conclusion after a year that since everything has been detrimental to the United States and to the advantage of China, it is deliberate. It isn't accidental. I feel like whoever is running the country doesn't like this country or care about its citizens. So, I decided to run based on that and the fact that no one would step forward.”