ELECTIONS / 29TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : Robbins Still Hopeful Despite Waxman’s Edge

In a year when many incumbents are running for cover, it would seem that attorney Mark A. Robbins has an opportunity to win a plum congressional seat representing much of the Westside and southern San Fernando Valley.

Robbins, 33, is a “fiscally responsive but socially aware” candidate waging a well-financed and politically sophisticated campaign against an incumbent forced to run in an unfamiliar new district.

As an openly gay candidate, Robbins can count on some support from progressives and gay voters in Silver Lake, West Hollywood and Santa Monica. And the fact that his opponent is a veteran congressman who bounced 434 checks in the House bank scandal--and who is at the very heart of the Capitol Hill political Establishment--doesn’t hurt either. The incumbent, Robbins has repeatedly said, “represents all that’s wrong with the political system today.”

Yet, political analysts give Robbins and three other candidates in the 29th Congressional District race little or no chance of winning. The reason: They are running against Rep. Henry A. Waxman, one of the most recognized and powerful liberal politicians in the nation.

Waxman, 53, who is seeking a 10th term, is widely expected to trounce all opposition in the newly created district that runs from Santa Monica and the Pacific Palisades through Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Bel-Air, north into the Santa Monica Mountains, Sherman Oaks and Studio City and east into Hollywood and Los Feliz.

So confident is Waxman of winning that he is spending little time campaigning, and most of his campaign war chest is being used to help other liberal Democrats in their reelection bids. And even though he has never represented 60% of those living in the new district, Waxman doesn’t even have a campaign manager, or a reelection staff.

“I don’t expect to spend a tremendous amount of money on my reelection campaign,” Waxman said. “I just think I have to introduce myself to many new voters, and I plan to do that.”

According to Waxman, voters ultimately will see through the anti-incumbency fever, and his bounced checks--he calls them “overdrafts” and says they were a legal perk accorded to everyone in Congress--and vote for him because of his accomplishments.

The diminutive, soft-spoken Los Angeles native wields more power on Capitol Hill than almost any other member of the House of Representatives. He has used his longstanding position as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and the environment to protect and strengthen the Clean Air Act and acid rain legislation and to get billions of dollars allocated for health care and AIDS programs and research.

This campaign season, Waxman plans to stump for a national health insurance program, a higher priority for women’s health issues such as breast and ovarian cancer and osteoporosis, better family planning policies and more AIDS funding.

“The Bush Administration has just ignored the problem of AIDS, put it on the back burner and acted as if it is not a major national concern,” Waxman said.

A shrewd political operator, Waxman made sure that he was first in line for the crown jewel of Westside congressional districts when four of five “safe” Democratic districts were collapsed into an ultra-safe one during the recent redistricting process.

Even in a district so overwhelmingly liberal (56% are registered Democrats), at least one of Waxman’s competitors--Robbins--remains upbeat.

Robbins, of West Hollywood, is running as a Republican, hoping that conservatives will vote for him because of his experience as a White House aide for President Ronald Reagan. He said Democrats west of La Cienega Boulevard are ready to turn their backs on Waxman and the Democratic political machine that backs him for sending their former Democratic congressman, Anthony C. Beilenson, off into a Valley district. And he accuses Waxman of ignoring the gay community.

“There isn’t anyone who supports the system right now, and Henry Waxman is a very clear symbol of the system,” said Robbins, who has budgeted $150,000 for his campaign. “We may just squeak in and stage an upset of national importance.”

Robbins wants term limits for members of Congress, elimination of special interest PAC funding and a restriction on campaign donations that limits them to voters from within a district. Both candidates generally support a woman’s right to choose an abortion.

Also running are Independent David Davis, Peace and Freedom Party candidate Susan C. Davies and Libertarian Felix Tsvi Rogin.

Rogin, 40, is a certified public accountant and rabbi who says it was Waxman’s political mailings that moved him to run.

“Every time I got a mailing from Waxman it was more taxes and more regulation,” Rogin said. “I was getting angrier and angrier.”

He is especially critical of Waxman’s proposal to regulate the sale of vitamins, herbs and other so-called natural remedies. “What we need are laws to protect us from other people, not to protect us from ourselves,” he said.

Rogin toes a fairly standard Libertarian line on the economy, which he sees as the major campaign issue. He calls for loosening regulations on businesses and reducing taxes so consumers will have more money to spend.

Independent Davis calls for lifting the economy through a “return to federal work programs we turned to during the last Depression.”

A mechanical and electrical engineer who lives in Hollywood, Davis said he is concerned about “the hordes of homeless beggars that fill our district” and, more generally, about the “the condition of our earth.” He said he backs an end to nuclear weapons proliferation and describes himself as a candidate of “sanity and focus.”

As if name recognition weren’t already a big enough headache for minor party candidates and independents, Davis is running against Davies.

Peace and Freedom candidate Davies is an openly lesbian social worker from Silver Lake. She believes Waxman often says the right things but doesn’t always back them up, especially when it comes to minorities, gays and women.

“It’s fine to take the right stance, but we need more than that right now,” she said. “We’re in crisis, and I don’t think we’re going to find solutions to any of this until we open up the (two-party) process.”

Staff writer Jeff Kramer contributed to this story.

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 29 Candidates:

Democrat

Henry A. Waxman, congressman

Republican

Mark A. Robbins, attorney

Peace and Freedom

Susan C. Davies, social worker

Libertarian

Felix Tsvi Rogin, rabbi, accountant

Independent

David Davis, engineer, musician, inventor

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Demographics: Anglo: 76% Latino: 13% Black: 3% Asian: 7%

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Party Registration: Democrat: 56% Republican: 30%