Rogan to Seek 3rd Term in Congress

Rep. James E. Rogan will announce plans to seek reelection at a barbecue today with supporters, setting up a showdown with an old nemesis, state Sen. Adam Schiff, that is expected to receive national attention as a revisiting of President Clinton’s impeachment.

One of the House prosecutors in Clinton’s Senate impeachment trial, Rogan (R-Glendale) had pondered a run against Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, but quickly bowed out, disappointing state GOP leaders. He said Friday that he opted to seek reelection next year instead to help Republicans maintain their slim majority in the House--and to go another round with Schiff (D-Burbank), whom he defeated twice earlier this decade in Assembly races.

Rogan, a former Glendale municipal judge, shrugged off suggestions that his role in the impeachment trial would hurt him in 2000, reiterating that he based his actions on principle, not partisan politics.

The 27th Congressional District seat held by Rogan, which spans Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and San Marino, is increasingly becoming a Democratic stronghold, and voters in the area, like most of the country, overwhelmingly opposed Clinton’s impeachment, according to several polls.

“I enjoy my work in the House, and I am not about to give that up,” Rogan said. “I would not want my legacy to the party to be that I contributed to us losing the House--certainly not to Adam Schiff. I’ve run against this guy twice. I know where his glass jaws are.”

Schiff responded in kind Friday, saying that circumstances had changed since their previous campaign tussles. Rogan, he said, will not be able to overcome the partisan zealot image he left with many voters during the impeachment proceedings.

“When people talked about Jim Rogan’s record before as being to the right of [Sen.] Jesse Helms, people did not believe it,” Schiff said. “But then they turned on their television sets and saw this angry, bitter Jim Rogan, and it has caused a lot of moderates to have second thoughts.”

A former federal prosecutor, Schiff said his campaign plans to spotlight what he saw as Rogan’s overall record of engaging in political infighting in Washington rather than addressing local concerns.

Although Rogan may downplay the impeachment issue with local voters, Schiff said, he is playing it up in a big way while raising cash for the campaign. As evidence, Schiff produced a fund-raising letter distributed by the Rogan campaign that urged donors to show their support for his performance as House manager by helping him fend off a backlash from Clinton and “Hollywood liberals.”

Rogan, who was reelected to a second term last year, pointed to his recent attempts to resolve the stalemate among local officials over expansion of Burbank Airport as an example of his involvement in local issues.

Both Rogan and Schiff have seized on the airport impasse in recent months, in fact, scheduling dueling summits to address the issue and proposing legislative solutions.

“If he is suggesting that the voters are stupid and that they reelect people who do nothing, he is stupid,” Rogan said. “The difference between myself and Adam Schiff is that I don’t send out a press release every time I do my job.”