Rep. Capps, Professor-Turned-Legislator, Collapses and Dies

Rep. Walter Capps, a longtime professor at UC Santa Barbara who last year became the first Democrat since World War II to win the congressional district encompassing much of the Central Coast, died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack. He was 63.

Capps was stricken as he flew back to Washington after spending the weekend in the 22nd District, according to House officials. He was rushed off the airplane at suburban Dulles International Airport by emergency medical officials and pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a hospital in nearby Reston, Va., around 6 p.m. local time.

Word of his death spread as the House was in session Tuesday evening, and his colleagues reacted with stunned disbelief.

“We’re all shocked,” said Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento), who moved for an adjournment of the day’s business in Capps’ memory.

In an interview, a visibly shaken Fazio recalled having met just last week with Capps, who was joined by constituents from Santa Barbara. “Some people might have thought of him as a college professor coming to Washington and being very partisan and rigid,” Fazio said. “But he wasn’t. He was a very pragmatic politician who was doing good things for his constituents. I could see he was very, very popular with them.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) said she recently was teased by Capps about the two of them being the only Swedish Americans currently serving in the House. “He spoke Swedish, and I don’t,” she said. “We were joking about that when he turned to me and said, ‘I love what I’m doing’ ” in Congress.

President Clinton praised Capps as “a rare soul, someone able to fuse intense spirituality with a devotion to his community and country.”

Capps’ daughter, Laura, works in the Clinton White House.

Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said Capps will be missed for “the civility he brought to the House.”

He also said the freshman legislator “brought a combination of bounding energy and commitment to the issues he cared so much about: making health care more accessible, reforming the campaign finance system and protecting the environment. He was a prominent voice in speaking out on human rights abuses in China, and recently had been leading an effort . . . to urge the administration to ban the importation of assault weapons.”

Capps won the seat last November in one of the state’s most closely watched elections. It was his second try for the seat representing Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, offering a rematch of the 1994 race in which Capps lost to Republican Andrea Seastrand by about 1,600 votes out of more than 200,000 cast.

As one of the scores of new Republicans who swept their party into control of Congress, Seastrand promptly established herself as a key backer of House Speaker Newt Gingrich and as a legislator who pursued her beliefs with a fire and brimstone style. In the rematch, Capps portrayed himself as a rational crusader against Seastrand’s “extreme” stands.

While he bested Seastrand by more than 12,000 votes, Capps in his second campaign had to overcome injuries he suffered in a head-on collision May 23, 1996, when a drunk driver tried to pass on a two-lane highway. Capps was hospitalized for weeks, recuperating from lacerations, a severely broken arm and a broken leg.

During the campaign, he said: “I never want to forget what it’s like to go through the world in a wheelchair.”

Capps previously served for more than 30 years as professor of religious studies at UC Santa Barbara. He was the author of 14 books and was widely recognized as an expert on religion, conflict resolution and American democracy.

Bill Carrick, a Democratic consultant who ran Capps’ 1996 campaign, said he was different from many of today’s no-holds-barred politicians.

“He was very nonconfrontational, very non-shrill,” said Carrick. “He was a great listener and seeker of common ground.”

During the 1970s, Capps developed a course called “The Impact of the Vietnam War,” bringing Vietnam veterans and former Vietnamese citizens to campus.

“Year after year, it was the biggest draw at the university,” said David Landecker, a former Santa Barbara councilman.

Gov. Pete Wilson has 14 days from today to call for a special election to fill Capps’ seat. Both a primary and special election will then be scheduled.

Capps grew up in Omaha, Neb. He graduated from Portland State University in Oregon and earned multiple degrees, including a doctorate, from Yale Divinity School.

In addition to his daughter, Laura, Capps is survived by his wife, Lois, a son, Todd, and another daughter, Lisa.

Times staff writers Kenneth R. Weiss and Mark Z. Barabak contributed to this story from Los Angeles.