Congress : Schenk Merits Vote in 49th; Incumbents Encased Elsewhere

Four local congressional races offer a revealing glimpse of the county’s political future--and a troubling reminder of the past. Both contenders in the newly drawn 49th District are women, guaranteeing that San Diego will finally be sending a woman to Congress, a historic--and welcome--first.

But in the 48th, 51st and 52nd districts, it’s business as usual, with incumbents apparently safely encased in regions where their party enjoys overwhelming advantages in voter registration. That virtually ensures they will be reelected, flaws and all.

Indeed, Republicans Ron Packard, Randall (Duke) Cunningham and Duncan Hunter have their flaws--a reputation as a do-little, a soft spot for Navy excuses over the Tailhook scandal, and major involvement in the House check-kiting scandal, respectively.

But, first, the good news. The spirited race in the 49th District, which stretches from La Jolla to the Mexican border and inland along Interstate 8, puts a new twist on the “Year of the Woman.” Both major-party candidates are female. Both support abortion rights. With those volatile issues out of the picture, clear differences have emerged.

Tierrasanta nurse Judy Jarvis was the upset winner in the 10-candidate GOP primary. With no previous political experience or community involvement, her platform is almost solely based on her status as an “outsider.” But that cuts both ways. As a political novice, Jarvis is vague on many issues. She at first supported President Bush’s veto of the family-leave bill. Now she says she doesn’t. And she did a similar reversal on the school-voucher issue--first opposing it, now embracing it.

Attorney Lynn Schenk, the Democratic nominee, has remained consistent. She supports a federal waiting period for handgun purchases, opposes the voucher system and would have voted to override the veto of the family leave legislation.

Though Schenk has never won elective office, she has enjoyed a number of political appointments, including three years in the Cabinet of then-Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown and her current position on the port commission.

But, if Schenk is an insider, she’s also an agent of change. She established the first women-owned bank in the state and successfully challenged a men-only rule at a swanky downtown restaurant. And, while serving in Brown’s Cabinet, she brought $257 million in freeway and mass transit funds to San Diego.

That’s the kind of proven leadership San Diego needs in Congress. The Times endorses Lynn Schenk for Congress in the 49th district.

In the other districts, though, the choices are less heartening.

Packard recently was cited as one of the most inconspicuous representatives in Congress by Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper. Cunningham and Hunter were among the partisan hit men who recently convinced President Bush to attack Bill Clinton’s patriotism.

The two insisted that the Arkansas governor’s youthful anti-war demonstrations while a Rhodes scholar in England mean, in Cunningham’s words, that “Tokyo Rose has nothing over Clinton.” Not surprisingly, that McCarthy-style silliness backfired.

Yes, the three incumbents also have stood up for projects supported by their constituents. But do they deserve a cakewalk? None of them was seriously challenged in the party primary. And the Democrats they now face--businessman Michael Farber in the 48th District, accountant Bea Herbert in the 51st and former teacher Janet M. Gastil in the 52nd--are sincere but underfunded grass-roots challengers with little chance of victory.

While we choose not to endorse in these races, we urge voters to be particularly watchful of the incumbents. Clearly, the partisan safety in these districts can breed laziness and extremism.