Just three months after declaring “I’m not quitting,” Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California announced Friday he is retiring instead of facing a difficult reelection campaign in a redrawn district.

“It’s the right time for a new chapter and new challenges,” Issa said in a statement. “…Serving in Congress has been the honor of my life.”

Issa, a car alarm magnate considered one of the wealthiest members of Congress, had been a chief antagonist for then-President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton while he served as chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, from 2011 to early 2015.

Issa’s abrupt reversal injects more uncertainty in the race for Southern California’s 48th District, which was drastically reshaped in November after voters approved a new U.S. House map for California to favor Democrats.

With an incumbent out of the running, it may be harder for Republicans to hold the seat and, by extension, the party’s fragile majority in the House.

After redistricting, Issa flirted with the idea of leaving California to run for Congress in Texas. But at the time he decided to stay put in his home state.

“I can hold this seat. I’m not quitting on California and neither should anyone else,” Issa, who represents a district anchored in San Diego County, said in a statement at the time.

California’s new congressional map, which was spearheaded by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, is intended to tip as many as five Republican-held seats to Democrats this year to offset President Trump’s push in Texas to gain five seats for his party there.

A national battle to redraw U.S. House districts for partisan advantage is still raging in some states ahead of the November midterm elections.

Voters in Texas and North Carolina already have cast ballots in primary elections for U.S. House districts redrawn at Trump’s urging. But the final boundaries for voting districts remain uncertain in Missouri, even though candidates already are filing for office. They also are unclear in Virginia, where new congressional districts could hinge both on a voter referendum and court rulings.

In a video posted to social media Thursday, Obama called on Virginia voters to support the redistricting effort. Virginia currently has six Democrats and five Republicans in the House. Plans offered by elected Democratic leaders this year would try and shift those lines in a way that could result in sending 10 Democrats back to the House and just one Republican. 

In his statement, Issa said he was endorsing San Diego County Supervisor James Desmond to succeed him.

A group of tech industry leaders and self-described “radical centrists” are vowing to push back on left-leaning policies in California that are causing an exodus among wealthy entrepreneurs and businesses from the Golden State.

The New York Post reported that the group held an event attended by about 350 people in Mountain View, California, that featured elected officials, including San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, tech industry leaders and hundreds of attendees who want to challenge the progressive tilt of the state’s policies.

The meeting comes as several prominent wealthy entrepreneurs have left California to avoid a proposed 5% one-time wealth tax on billionaires who were California residents at the start of this year, with the tax due next year. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel are among those who have moved assets or relocated from California. 

Business leaders who are spearheading the group urged those in attendance not to give up on California by leaving and instead push back on left-leaning policies by electing more moderate politicians.

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“Some people have decided to leave our state as some kind of heroic thing. Like, ‘I’m going to Florida,’” Ripple Chairman Chris Larsen said at the event, according to the Post’s report. “That is not brave. That’s surrender. So, let’s get involved. Let’s take back our state.”

Larsen said the group needs to “fight on par with the unions when they’re proposing stupid job-killing ideas like the San Francisco CEO tax.” 

He also called out Democratic politicians who are competing to become the party’s nominee for California governor, including former Democratic presidential primary candidate Tom Steyer, Rep. Eric Swalwell and former Rep. Katie Porter for supporting the union-backed CEO tax.

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He said it’s “really disappointing,” and it reflects the pressure that labor unions have put on the state’s elected officials. Larsen added that while the group isn’t anti-union, it aims to balance labor’s ability to influence elected officials.

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan hosted the event after he launched “Garry’s List” last month to serve as a “citizen’s union” to support centrist candidates in California who are supportive of policies to improve the state’s schools and addressing issues related to housing and public safety.

Tan criticized Steyer, saying he’s attempting to “buy the governor’s mansion to raise your taxes,” and praised Mahan as the “next governor of California.”

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The Post’s report noted that Garry’s List is focusing on voter education efforts through a blog Tan writes with the assistance of AI. Tan launched the site criticizing anti-growth policies, wealth taxes and a strike by San Francisco teachers.

Garry’s List is one of several groups that have been formed in an effort to stem the leftward lurch of California’s politics.

A group called Grow California was created by Larsen and Tim Draper, which will spend about $40 million to support “pragmatic” candidates focused on addressing issues like the cost of living.

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Another group called Building a Better California was launched by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, venture capitalist Michael Moritz and other tech leaders. It has raised over $45 million to help advance initiatives to reform tax policy and spur development.

While we may lose an hour of sleep this coming weekend, one clock store in California is gearing up for one of its busiest times of the year: daylight savings.

It’s the House of Clocks, the largest clock company in Northern California, which was recently celebrating 55 years of business.

It’s a place frozen in time. Just visit the store’s 240-year-old grandfather clock. It’s got plenty of stories to tell, dating back to 1780.

“This is the oldest piece we have right now,” clocksmith Joey Hohn said.

The House of Clocks is on the outskirts of Downtown Lodi in San Joaquin County.

“We have new, we have vintage, we have antique,” co-owner Sandy Hohn shared. “Honestly, it feels like not a day goes by that we don’t get a phone call or an email of somebody wanting to sell something for 100 different reasons.”

The clock store has been with the Hohn family for three generations. It’s all thanks to one family heirloom.

“When the first war started, [my grandparents] left everything and had to move,” Joey Hohn explained. “After the Second World War, my grandpa was stationed in Germany. They went back to the house that had been abandoned and the neighbor who they left the property to said, ‘As far as I’m concerned, everything in the house is still yours.’ They went back and got this, so this is my great-great-grandparents’ clock.”

You can find just about anything in the House of Clocks, from old grandfather clocks to clocks that can fit in the palm of your hand.

What you can’t find anywhere else is the Hohns’ love for Lodi.

“We’ve made so many friends over the years out of customers,” Sandy Hohn said. “Friends that are just wonderful, that love collecting, and we keep them repaired for their families, which is awesome. They have sentimental value that’s passed down.”

That same love for the city and their community runs in the family.

“We had a customer that wanted to repaint their dial,” Joey Hohn explained. “We told them no because it was her father’s who had passed away. Every time he went to wind the clock, he placed his thumb in the same spot. When we told her that smudge there on the dial was her father, she said, ‘Back away, don’t you dare.’ It was just a good memory we have.”

While you can’t turn back time, what we can do is keep memories alive and treasure the present moment.

“There’s so many personalities,” Sandy Hohn said. “We just try to find a good home for them.”