Chula Vista mayoral candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar shared his driver’s license, electric bills, W-2 income statements and other documents with Times of San Diego this week to prove his residency in the South Bay city.
Campa-Najjar, a Democrat, has been accused by Republican challenger John McCann, a city councilman, of living outside the city.
McCann’s campaign hired a private investigator to follow Campa-Najjar, who is in a relationship with Rep. Sarah Jacobs, and released surveillance videos taken outside her home.
“Is it overkill to share all this to prove I’ve lived in the same Chula Vista residence I do now for many years, before I got into politics?” Campa-Najjar asked.
Many of the documents have the street address blacked-out, but all show Chula Vista as the location.
Campa-Najjar, who grew up in Chula Vista and worked in the Obama administration, has run for Congress twice in East County, challenging former Rep. Duncan Hunter and current Rep. Darrell Issa, who himself switched districts. But throughout Campa-Najjar maintained a residence in Chula Vista, where he grew up.
“Campa-Najjar has a pattern of misleading voters for his own personal gain by using his family’s addresses to run in different districts,” the San Diego County Republican Party said in a statement last month when the surveillance videos were released.
McCann beat Campa-Najjar by 31% to 23% in the primary, but three primary challengers have since endorsed Campa-Najjar, as has Gov. Gavin Newsom and many Democratic Party leaders.