Democrat Bidding for Dornan Seat : Politics: Mike Farber says his GOP opponent ‘is beatable’ at rally announcing candidacy. He must first win primary.

Former San Diego businessman Mike Farber announced at a rally of about 150 supporters Sunday that he will run against Republican Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) in a campaign that marks “a new political era for Orange County.”

Dornan “is beatable,” said Farber, 32, who must first defeat at least one other declared candidate in the Democratic primary. He is state director of the Concord Coalition, a group advocating reduction of the federal deficit.

The 46th Congressional District, which includes Santa Ana and parts of Garden Grove and Anaheim, is the only district in the county in which registered Democrats outnumber Republicans.

Unquestionably, Farber said, the most important issues of the campaign are jobs and the economy. In 15 years in Congress, Farber said, Dornan “hasn’t, can’t and won’t do anything to help our community.”

Other issues, said Farber, like crime and poor education, are “symptomatic” of the larger economic malaise, the “root” of the problem. “You only have to travel a few blocks down Broadway or Bristol to see the ravaged remains of a failed economy,” said Farber, a Santa Ana resident. “Empty storefronts, abandoned cars, graffiti-covered homes and businesses and the highest murder rate in Orange County.”

Farber, who told the gathering he “spent weekends painting out the graffiti,” proposed enterprise zones for Garden Grove and Anaheim, much like the one in Santa Ana which he said has created more than 1,000 new jobs in the last four months.

Crime will also be a central issue in his campaign, Farber said. He said he supports the Clinton administration’s crime bill, now before Congress.

But he took no position on a controversial Senate proposal that youths as young as 13 years old who are charged with serious federal crimes be tried as adults, saying only that he favors “stiffer penalties for young adults” convicted of serious crimes.

Farber said he also supports development of alternative types of incarceration for nonviolent offenders, but said he has not decided whether to back a proposal passed last week by voters in Washington State that would mandate life in prison without parole for anyone convicted of a third felony.

Besides Farber, the only declared Democratic candidate is Robert John Banuelos, an unemployed government worker.