San Diego Congressman Caught in Surprising Struggle

Just when you figure that politics conforms to certain patterns, along comes the Democratic primary in the 50th Congressional District.

The two-term incumbent, Bob Filner, might never win a congeniality contest, but he has a proven record as a political workaholic who fulfills his promises to a blue-collar district that includes the southern portion of San Diego, the cities of Chula Vista and National City, and the border communities of San Ysidro and Otay Mesa.

Filner blocked an unpopular plan for an airport, delivered grants for schools, health clinics, and a sewage plant, blocked a border tax, and helped get a waiver from federal rules that could have sent water bills soaring. He is a dedicated foe of Newt Gingrich.

He has not been caught in any scandal. He has plenty of campaign money, and his endorsement ducks are in a row: labor unions, abortion rights groups, environmentalists, ethnic groups and others.

And yet he is fighting for his political life in a Democratic primary against Juan Carlos Vargas, 35, a lawyer and San Diego councilman who endorsed him in 1994. If he loses, he could be the only Democratic congressman dumped in a primary this year.

If this was going to happen, it was supposed to happen two years ago. Conventional wisdom says a congressman is most vulnerable in his first reelection bid and, further, 1994 was the year that the Republicans took over Congress.

But in 1994 Filner was unopposed in the primary and breezed past his Republican opponent, a Latina businesswoman.

Polls for Filner and Vargas show Tuesday’s primary to be unexpectedly tight, possibly with Vargas in the lead.

“The only sense I can make of it,” said Maureen Steiner, chairwoman of the San Diego County Democratic Party, “is that Vargas is parlaying his personality, charm, good looks and Hispanic identity, and trying to tap into a conservative vein in the Democratic Party.”

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Filner, 53, a former history professor at San Diego State, school board member and San Diego City Council member, said he is mystified. He has replaced his campaign manager and is airing television ads attacking Vargas as inexperienced and “anti-choice” (Vargas says he opposes abortion but would not vote to outlaw it.)

Possessed with an assertive--some say abrasive--personality, Filner said he has been trying to talk to voters about issues and getting an odd reaction.

“That’s the frustrating thing,” he said. “It’s almost as if people don’t want to hear.”

He’s upset by Vargas’ refusal to debate and by Vargas making an issue out of his vote against a proposed constitutional amendment to make flag-burning a federal crime.

Vargas responds that he is skipping the debates because they just end up with candidates exchanging insults. Except for the flag vote, he avoids publicly knocking Filner.

“I’ve not said anything negative about my opponent and I won’t,” he said. “I’m running for Congress, not against an opponent.”

Vargas says Congress is where the issues that interest him most are decided, including binational trade, economic growth and infrastructure planning.

The 50th Congressional District is the most ethnically diverse in San Diego County. Filner is the only Democratic member of Congress south of Los Angeles and west of Phoenix.

Democratic leaders, including Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, tried to dissuade Vargas from running. “I’m not pleased with party bosses,” Vargas said, “particularly those who have dragged our party too far to the left.”

Registration in the 50th shows 46% Democrats, 31% Republicans, 11% decline to state, and 11% minor parties. The population is 42% Latino, 23% white, 15% black, 15% Asian and 5% “other.” Among registered voters, whites make up about 50% and Latinos 25%, with the rest split among other groups.

Despite its Democratic edge in registration, two of the more conservative Republican members of Congress, Duncan Hunter and Randall “Duke” Cunningham, got their start in the district by upsetting Democratic incumbents. Hunter was elected in 1980 amid the Reagan landslide, and Cunningham in 1990 defeated an incumbent snared in a sex scandal.

By 1992, redistricting left Hunter and Cunningham with districts further to the east and north that are comfortably Republican. Filner was elected to an open seat.

In 1992, Vargas had only recently returned to San Diego after being away for eight years receiving training to become a Jesuit priest and then, after changing his mind, attending Harvard Law School. Still, he placed a strong third in the party primary won by Filner. In 1993 he was elected to the council to succeed Filner and was reelected last year unopposed.

He has championed graffiti removal and expansion of San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium and put forth several ambitious plans for revitalizing down-at-the-heels portions of his district. Some of those plans have shown signs of taking hold, others not.

Youthful in his exuberance, Vargas has a knack for making news and getting TV coverage.

As Filner has been going door to door talking about sewage plants and payments for Filipinos who served in World War II, Vargas was on TV blasting atheists for holding a ceremony at the Mt. Soledad cross and criticizing Mexican authorities about a bomb scare.

Vargas’ campaign brochures emphasize a theme that is tried and true, if somewhat intellectually opaque: family values.

Filner accuses Vargas of running a “stealth campaign” and of really being a Republican. He notes that several prominent Republicans have hosted fund-raisers for Vargas.

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One leading Republican wrote, “I simply made a determination that Juan Vargas is far more preferable to us than Bob Filner in moving ahead the Republican agenda.”

With the lopsided registration edge, winning the Democratic primary is tantamount to winning the election. There are, however, three candidates seeking to be the Republican standard-bearer in the November elections: businessman Ted Joseph, Baptist minister Jim Baize and Michael Lee, a retired Navy petty officer.

The Vargas strategy is that he simply fits the district better than Filner because he is more local (he grew up in National City, Filner in New York), more moderate (he calls Filner a liberal) and more neighborly (he delivered Christmas cards to voters).

“I’m a product of this district,” he said. “This is my growing ground.”

It is a strategy that has the incumbent fuming as he talks about protecting Medicare and job-training bills.

“They seem to believe they can do it all with personality,” Filner said of his upstart challenger.