The Scott Peters campaign said a new video clip released to the media shows that challenger Carl DeMaio has ties to the right-wing Tea Party movement.
DeMario, a Republican and former San Diego City Council member, is challenging Peters, a Democrat who is completing his first term as Congressman in the 52nd District.
In the video, DeMaio tells a gathering in December 2011 that the Tea Party is “the conscience of the accountable-government movement” and says he’ll owe the party “everything.”
“The video makes this much pretty clear: Carl DeMaio loves the Tea Party and the Tea Party loves Carl DeMaio,” said Alex Roth, communications director for the Peters campaign. “Voters should remember this video the next time DeMaio tries to pretend he’s anything other than a far-right candidate.”
The DeMaio campaign criticized the video as being taken out of context.
“It’s laughable that Scott Peters had to resort to deceptively splicing video clips completely out of context in order to call the gay, pro-choice government reformer an ‘extremist,’” said Dave McCulloch of the DeMaio campaign.
Earlier this week the national political website CQ Roll Call listed Peters as one of the 10 House members most vulnerable in the November election.
The 52nd District covers much of central San Diego County including Poway, Coronado and large portions of the City of San Diego.
