Dornan 2000? The Number of Times He’ll Run

Three years ago, Bob Dornan wanted Bill Clinton’s job.

Now, he may want Ron Packard’s.

At this pace, he’ll be running for dogcatcher by 2010.

Was it really 1996 that Dornan lost his central Orange County congressional seat to upstart Loretta Sanchez? That’s what the history books show, but it seems like yesterday. That was a busy year for the red-haired dervish: before losing to Sanchez in the fall, he ran in the spring in Republican presidential primaries--a campaign that gave “quixotic” a whole new meaning.

Dornan lost again to Sanchez in 1998, but he’d kept himself in the news so much with claims of ’96 election fraud that most people probably thought he was still the incumbent. I know Dornan did.

Man for All Millenniums

Now, as we approach the millennium, Dornan shows up from time to time on TV talk shows, and I swear he looks younger every time. The hosts still refer to him as “Congressman,” in the same way, I suppose, that I still think of John Nance Garner as “Mr. Vice President.”

Dornan is one of those people who can’t go away. Not won’t, can’t. Like the stray pooch you shoo off the porch but who returns every night at dinner time, Dornan hears an election cycle is coming up and starts barking and lapping at people’s pant leg.

As Dornan has kindly reminded us any number of times, when you’re as smart as he is, you almost have a duty to serve the public.

I suppose he’ll be beating that into our thick heads until the day he dies, which makes it unsurprising that as soon as Packard announced he wouldn’t run again in his south Orange County seat, Dornan’s ears pricked up.

Packard says he’ll wrap up 18 years in Congress next year, thus leaving his 48th District seat open. Any out-of-work Republican within 50 miles would be interested in a district that sweet, and that’s plenty close enough for Dornan, who was living in L.A. County when he first decided to run for Congress from Orange County in 1984.

Dornan is only 66 now, so he probably figures he has another 20 or 30 years of meaningful public service left. Others would calculate it differently--such as the county’s GOP leadership, which would just as soon that Dornan move to Big Sur and write a screenplay or something.

In recent weeks, Dornan joked (I think) about running against incumbent Congressman Dana Rohrabacher in another Orange County district. Anyone who follows local politics would salivate over that, if only because we never got a chance to see Jesse James and Billy the Kid in a gunfight.

Dornan and Rohrabacher have a bit of a history that isn’t worth retelling here, but let’s just say a spring 2000 campaign between the two would get the new century off to a rollicking, if not particularly civil start.

Meanwhile, Packard’s announcement came this week, so the jockeying isn’t in full swing yet. Dornan is being coy, probably waiting for the groundswell from voters that would sweep him into the race.

Family Full-Employment Act

When I heard that he might be interested, my first concern was that some of his children must be out of work. They’ve worked on previous Dornan campaigns and, naturally, been paid out of his campaign funds.

The word so far is that Big Daddy is mulling things over.

That said, it’s much too early to get worked up about a possible Dornan return to Orange County politics. Many people are just getting over his last foray, which ended embarrassingly and which most assumed would be his last.

Blame that on our inability to recognize greatness in our midst.

As recently as 11 months ago, Dornan said, “I think Congress is a lesser place with me not there. I set a standard of bold, stand-tall speaking. On any number of issues, I don’t see my equal in the House.”

Accordingly, Dornan probably owes it to someone--if only himself--to run again.

And if he loses again?

Don’t forget dogcatcher.

And if he loses that?

Surely, some student council in 2012 will have a sergeant-at-arms vacancy.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com