Democrats Find Trouble in Paradox

When Democrats in Congress rhapsodize of their resurgence, they cast a covetous eye to California’s far north, to the land of redwood forests and burgundy waters.

Here where loggers and tree-huggers keep uneasy company, where urban yuppies and rural survivalists repair to their respective retreats, where home-grown marijuana and world-famous wines are the leading agricultural bounty.

Tumbling from the Oregon border clear to the northern reaches of the San Francisco Bay Area, the 1st Congressional District takes in some of California’s most breathtaking beauty and presents some of the state’s most paradoxical politics.

With 2,300 miles distance, it seems an unlikely place for a proxy shoving match between the two leading Democrats jockeying for the White House in 2000.

But a looming primary fight between a pair of Democratic congressional hopefuls here has improbably assumed the coloration of an Al Gore-Richard Gephardt feud, proving that no potatoes are small potatoes when political adversaries are slinging the hash.

“The first caucus of the presidential race is in February 2000,” Bob Mulholland, a senior advisor to the state Democratic Party, rightly notes. “It’s not in the 1st Congressional District in 1998.”

But try telling that to party activists and a passel of Washington politicos all asking the musical question: How do you solve a problem like Michela?

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The 1st Congressional District is solidly Democratic. The party enjoys a 15-point bulge in voter registration. But the incumbent is Frank Riggs, a conservative Republican and loyalist of House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The speaker last year provided vital assistance to Riggs’ reelection effort. But Riggs benefited even more from the campaign waged by Democrat Michela Alioto, the 29-year-old granddaughter of former San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto and a one-time aide to Vice President Gore.

Plagued from the beginning by carpetbagger charges--she bought a home in the district just days before the filing deadline--Alioto compounded her problems by mispronouncing local place names, flubbing local issues and blundering her way through myriad other political miscues.

In a year when President Clinton won California in a walk and Democrats picked up three congressional seats, the one that seemed ripest for the taking proved no contest. Riggs coasted to victory by a seven-point margin.

Enter Democrat Mike Thompson.

A lifelong Napa Valley resident, decorated Vietnam War veteran and popular state senator, Thompson passed in 1996 when Democrats sought to recruit him to run against Riggs. Now term-limited out of office after 1998, he’s making the race, urged on by House Minority Leader Gephardt and nearly a dozen members of California’s congressional delegation.

For Gephardt, a Thompson victory would not only boost Democrats’ chances of winning back the House, but elevate the stature Gephardt needs to build, chit by chit, to challenge the vice president for the party’s presidential nomination in 2000.

Meanwhile, this being a free country and all, Alioto has decided to run again. “The VP’s been very supportive,” she said, picking through a plate of field greens at a trendy Rutherford eatery. “He’s given a lot of encouragement.”

Which is precisely the problem, in the view of many party insiders who feel, as one Gephardt partisan put it, “She had a shot at it and she blew it.”

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The concern among prominent Democrats here and inside the Beltway is that time, money and effort that should be devoted to a fall contest against Riggs will be consumed in a costly and bitter primary fight between Alioto and Thompson.

“I don’t think anything constructive would come out of a lot of valuable Democratic financial and emotional resources being wasted,” said Mary Jadiker, head of the Lake County Democrats and a former Alioto supporter now backing Thompson.

If only Gore could make the problem go away, Jadiker said, seeming to underestimate both the vice president’s priorities and Alioto’s resolve. “It would be wonderful if he could arrange some position for her” in Washington, Jadiker suggested.

To which Alioto tartly replied: “I’m not looking for a job.”

For Gore’s part, a spokeswoman insisted that the vice president will stay neutral in any primary contest. One White House advisor even laughed off the local discord.

But given Gore’s perceived behind-the-scenes role, should Democrats fail to oust Riggs again next year, it’s the vice president who’ll be left harvesting the sour grapes.