Hart Won’t Run This Year for Seat in Congress

State Sen. Gary K. Hart has decided against running for Congress this year, saying Tuesday that he did not want to raise the money and commit the time needed to win a new congressional district that favors a Republican candidate.

“The timing isn’t right,” said Hart, a Santa Barbara Democrat. He said he was not prepared to give up the time he could otherwise spend with his family and on state budgetary problems.

“It would be a tough race,” Hart said. “It would not be as easy as four years ago.”

Hart’s decision ends the long-anticipated rematch between Hart and Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura), who has decided to move north to the proposed 22nd Congressional District encompassing Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Lagomarsino narrowly defeated Hart in a 1988 congressional race that was the closest and the costliest in the nation at the time. The two candidates together spent $3.1 million during the campaign, and Hart has talked about challenging Lagomarsino ever since.

Hart’s decision to stay in Sacramento also keeps him well-positioned to run for state superintendent of public instruction in 1994. Hart, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, expressed an interest in the statewide office held by Bill Honig, a Democrat.

“Three years from now, that is certainly a possibility,” Hart said. “I don’t know what Honig’s plans are. There is a good chance that he will not run again.”

Honig has become the subject of state and federal investigations into possible conflict of interest and misuse of funds from a parent-involvement program that was run by his wife. Nancy Honig resigned last week as president of the Quality Education Project.

Hart made his announcement three weeks before the state Supreme Court is scheduled to adopt new congressional and legislative districts that were redrawn to reflect changes in population documented in the 1990 census.

Before the Supreme Court took over the state’s redistricting process, state Democratic leaders said their political maps included a congressional district tailored specifically for Hart. But a stalemate between the Legislature and Gov. Pete Wilson forced the high court to intervene with its own political boundaries.

Hart said he decided to reveal his plans early so that other Democratic candidates could prepare to challenge Lagomarsino in the proposed 22nd Congressional District.

“There is a long-shot chance the districts could change, but I think that is very unlikely,” Hart said. “I wanted to get out of the way early.”

Hart said the new district presents a tougher challenge for him as a Democrat than the old district that straddled Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

“If you look at the politics of the district, it is much harder,” Hart said. In addition to giving registered Republicans a 4% edge over registered Democrats, the new district would include 200,000 people in San Luis Obispo County that Hart has never represented.

He said he would have had to spend a great deal of time campaigning in this new territory, and that would have taken him away from his responsibilities as a father to three daughters, ages 8, 12 and 15.

Furthermore, if Hart won the office and moved his family to Washington, his wife Cary would have to give up her medical practice as a pediatrician in Sacramento. “There were some personal considerations,” he said.

“I’ll be one of the few in Sacramento who is not up for reelection or is not running for Congress.”

Hart’s announcement was greeted with some measure of relief by Lagomarsino, who decided to leave Ventura County to avoid a primary battle with Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley). The county’s two incumbent congressmen were thrown into the same congressional district under the proposed redistricting plan.

“We were faced with the prospect of raising a lot of money,” said John Doherty, a spokesman for Lagomarsino. With Hart out of the race, Doherty said, “we will still have to raise money, but probably not as much.”

No other Democrats have announced that they plan to run against Lagomarsino.

Anita Perez Ferguson, who challenged Lagomarsino in 1990, said she just rented a house in Ventura and plans to run against Gallegly in the proposed 23rd Congressional District that encompasses most of Ventura County.

Ferguson said Tuesday that Hart’s announcement does not change her plans to move to Ventura from Santa Barbara. “This is home now,” she said.