Rotten Boroughs

The quality of the Congressional delegation from the Los Angeles region is generally high. That is fortunate, for the district lines that were drawn after the last reapportionment virtually cement incumbents into place. Making changes is not easy.

Two particularly outstanding members of the California delegation, George E. Brown Jr., of Colton, in the 36th District, and Anthony C. Beilenson of Los Angeles, in the 23rd District, are facing heavier challenges than most incumbents because of changes in the voter registration in their districts. But their outstanding records should help them win.

The security conferred on incumbents by district boundaries has tended to discourage outstanding challengers from entering what appear to be hopeless races. There is one conspicuous exception this year in the 33rd District where a qualified, politically experienced professor, Monty Hempel, director of the Program in Public Policy at the Claremont Graduate School, is challenging the Republican incumbent, David Dreier.

This paucity of outstanding candidates has carried over to the one open race, the election of a successor to Bobbi Fiedler in the 21st District. Two men, their political lessons learned largely in small city governments, have emerged as the Republican and Democratic candidates. Of the two, we find Elton Gallegly, the Republican and mayor of Simi Valley, the more likely to be effective in the House of Representatives.

The late Phillip Burton, an influential Democrat elected to the House from San Francisco, is generally credited with drawing the Congressional district lines after the 1980 census to maximize Democratic representation. His efforts brought substantial job security to his fellow Democrats, with 27 of the 45 California seats, but the 18 Republican seats that resulted were equally secure for the GOP. Many of the district lines ignore established political and geographic identities and invite a more logical respect of normal boundaries when new lines are drawn after the 1990 census. The delegation is expected to gain five seats at that time, for a total of 50, again the largest in the nation.