Two Incumbent Congressmen Facing Tough Challenges

The matchup between Republican Rep. James E. Rogan and Democratic state Sen. Adam Schiff has all the makings of a great political fight.

Two hard-nosed former prosecutors, each a rising star in his party, are going head-to-head for a seat in Congress.

More than $4 million has already been raised. Schiff’s $1.1 million is the largest war chest amassed by any Democratic congressional challenger in the nation, although the general election is months away.

Many see the contest as a referendum on the impeachment of President Clinton and Rogan’s key role as a House prosecutor. Each candidate is backed by powerful national political interests, with stakes much higher than who will represent Pasadena, Glendale and Burbank in Washington.

The 27th District election is “going to be one of the most hotly contested and closely watched congressional races in the nation,” said GOP political strategist Allan Hoffenblum.

Neither candidate faces opposition in his party’s upcoming primary. Libertarian Ted Brown is also on the ballot uncontested.

Although neither Schiff nor Rogan has spent much or debated the issues, both see the open primary March 7 as an important test of voters’ preferences that might help them plan their showdown in November.

The Democrats enjoy a lead of more than 6% in voter registration in the district, and Rogan said he hopes to stay at least that close to Schiff in the voting next month. If he can, Rogan said, he will have the chance during the next six months to aggressively court the independents and undecideds.

“This is going to be a precursor of what will happen in November,” Rogan said. “If he beats me by 15 points, 10 points, I will be in trouble.”

Schiff said Rogan could benefit from a tight contest for the Republican presidential nomination, which he said would bring out more conservative voters.

In fund-raising appeals, Rogan has stated that he needs $800,000 to make a strong showing in the primary, but said in an interview he is planning a more bare-bones primary campaign. Schiff said he will spend less than $200,000, “and save . . . resources for November.”

What has drawn the national spotlight to the race so early, of course, is Rogan’s role in the impeachment and Senate trial of President Clinton. That made him a lightning rod for Democrats throughout the country who have helped Schiff become the leading fund-raiser among Democratic challengers in the nation.

“It’s a top target for Democrats,” said John Del Cecato, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which plans to weigh in heavily with financial support after the March 7 primary. “It’s very winnable.”

Rogan is “a rising star in the Republican Party,” said Jill Schroeder of the National Republican Congressional Committee. “It’s the top incumbent race in the nation.”

Rogan has watched the demographics of the district shift from bedrock Republican more than a decade ago to a greater ethnic diversity with Democrats the majority. Fifty-five percent of its voters went for Clinton in 1996.

A former deputy district attorney, Municipal Court judge and assemblyman, Rogan first won election to Congress in 1996, but with only 50% of the vote. In 1998, he won reelection by only 4 percentage points.

Schiff, a former federal prosecutor who lives in Burbank, represents a California Senate district that overlaps Rogan’s, so he is well-known to voters.

Among the issues that divide the two candidates:

* Schiff favors abortion rights, while Rogan said he opposes the use of taxpayer money for abortions on demand.

* Rogan, a recipient of the National Rifle Assn.’s Medal of Freedom, said he has supported reasonable restrictions on firearms, including instant background checks and a ban on the importing of high-volume ammunition clips, as well as a juvenile Brady Bill to keep guns out of the hands of minors.

Schiff said he supported a ban on assault rifles and Saturday night specials, and said Rogan has not done enough to control firearms.

* Schiff said Clinton’s actions leading to impeachment were “deplorable and immoral,” but Congress “violated the Constitution to punish him.”

Rogan said he is proud of his role in the impeachment.

“The president committed perjury,” Rogan said. “He obstructed justice. It was my obligation to defend the Constitution.

“I knew it was going to hurt when I did it, but my obligation was clear,” Rogan said.

Hoffenblum, the GOP strategist, said Rogan faces a difficult battle.

“It’s a tough seat for a Republican, regardless of his actions, to hold on to, because it’s trending Democratic,” Hoffenblum said. “Rogan has to turn it into a race that is based on personality while Schiff has to turn it into Democrats versus Republicans,” said Hoffenblum.

Rogan, 42, noted that he beat Schiff twice in races for the California Assembly in the early ‘90s.

In addition to a national fund-raising campaign that has netted him nearly $3 million, Rogan said he is counting on his record of fiscal conservatism and what he said is his closeness to his district.

“I think everything comes down to who has served this community,” Rogan said. “I have served this community as a gang-murder prosecutor, as a judge, as an assemblyman and as a congressman.”

For Schiff, Rogan is a radical right-winger who has slighted the district to gain the national political spotlight.

“The main reason I’m in this race is that for years he has ignored the district and only used it as a platform for his national, partisan, ideological crusade,” Schiff said.

Schiff, 39, served for six years as a federal prosecutor before he was elected to the state Senate in 1996.

Rogan’s story is now well known. A high school dropout whose mother was on welfare, he worked as a bouncer at an X-rated theater before eventually graduating from UC Berkeley and UCLA Law School.

Despite the overarching issue of impeachment, many feel that traditional constituent concerns will play the major role in the race.

Schiff cited his work to promote the Pasadena light rail project; to preserve the 238-acre Oakmont property--under consideration for a housing project and open space--from development; and to provide $500,000 for computerization of Burbank schools.

Rogan mentioned his role in blocking the unpopular extension of the Long Beach Freeway to Pasadena, his work to save jobs at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and an appropriation he secured for an appraisal of the Oakmont property.