In Congressional Races, Outsiders Face Long Odds

Democrat John Graham has hit the streets, running seven miles every morning around Irvine and Newport Beach in a T-shirt declaring his candidacy for Congress, hoping the thousands of passing motorists take note.

Democrat Ted Crisell, campaigning for Congress further up the coast, has hopped on the high-profile speaking circuit--even filling in to teach government classes on one campus when a substitute teacher failed to show up.

Libertarian David F. Nolan is spending $10,000 in cable television ads hoping for voter attention.

Tackling long odds is the way of the world for most congressional candidates targeting incumbents in Orange County, where Republicans hold solid voter majorities in five of the six districts.

Even in the race for the 46th District, where Democrats have their only edge, it has been much the same story. What looked a year ago to be the only competitive contest in Orange County evaporated into a race dominated by Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), herself an underdog in 1996 when she defeated longtime GOP incumbent Robert K. Dornan.

These days, Sanchez has become the symbol of overcoming the impossible--a comforting notion for challengers, perhaps, but the fact is that she raised more money than Dornan and ran in a district where Democrats had a slight voter edge.

Graham and Nolan have a more daunting task: They are challenging Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), a six-term incumbent in the coastal district who has risen to fifth in the House GOP leadership ranks. Crisell’s opponent is Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), elected the same year as Cox.

Crisell said he has no illusions about knocking out Rohrabacher. Just the same, his campaign brochure features a photo of him standing in front of a cutout of Mad Magazine icon Alfred E. Neuman that reads: “They didn’t think Loretta could beat Dornan either.”

“I said I was going to have fun with this and meet as many people as I can,” said Crisell, whose first campaign for office was 33 years ago as a school board candidate.

Cox, like the rest of his GOP colleagues, views the election through the prism of the presidential and other House races, where Republicans are only six seats away from losing their majority.

“This is the most important election on issues ranging from [repealing] the marriage tax penalty to my deathtrap repeal to Social Security reform,” Cox said. “The election of Gov. [George W.] Bush and an expanded Republican majority in Congress will permit us finally to achieve our agenda.”

A look at five of the county’s congressional races:

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39th District: Includes all or part of Fullerton, La Habra, Brea, Placentia, Buena Park, La Palma, Cypress, Los Alamitos, Yorba Linda and Anaheim.

Democrat Gill G. Kanel is a business owner from Fullerton and a party activist hoping to unseat four-term incumbent Rep. Edward R. Royce (R-Fullerton). Kanel’s priorities are reforming health care, increasing support for education and improving mobility and transportation. Royce, he said, has the wrong priorities.

“Our elderly need Medicare and Medicaid to help pay for expensive, lifesaving procedures and drugs,” he said. “Our children should receive simple and effective immunization. Our crumbling schools and freeways need upgrading. Federal money is available.”

Royce is best-known for taking tough stands on immigration issues and pushing for national anti-stalking laws, which he first sponsored as a member of the state Senate. He votes consistently with the conservative side of his party, but, more than his colleagues, has occasionally voted for bills backed by such interest groups as the Humane Society and Children’s Defense Fund.

Royce got 69% of the vote in the March open primary against the same candidates he’ll face Nov. 7. Keith D. Gann, an engineer from Cypress, is the Libertarian candidate and Ron Jevning, a researcher and college teacher from Tustin, is running on the Natural Law ticket.

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41st District: This district sprawls over parts of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties, taking in portions of Placentia, Anaheim and Brea.

Democrat Rodolfo G. Favila, a retired police officer from Ontario, has raised the most money of anyone challenging an incumbent in an Orange County district: $56,214. That still leaves him with a mere tenth of the funds raised by Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-Diamond Bar), elected two years ago after beating Republican Jay Kim, disgraced after a fund-raising scandal.

Favila supports increased spending for education, the environment, health care and transportation. He believes the national missile defense program should be scrapped and that the Immigration and Naturalization Service should be split, with immigration and border patrol duties separate.

A conservative in the mold of his Orange County colleagues, Miller has stressed his ability to obtain federal funding for local transportation and flood-control projects. He got 68% of the vote in March despite a GOP challenger.

The other candidate taking on Miller is David Kramer of the Natural Law Party, who manages the Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills. He ran for Congress in 1996.

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45th District: Includes all or part of Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Westminster, Fountain Valley and Newport Beach.

Crisell, a local businessman, is hoping his energy can match Rohrabacher’s longevity in a district where voters have reelected him five times and gave him 61% of the vote in March.

The differences between Republican and Democrat are stark: Crisell supports abortion rights; Rohrabacher is opposed. Crisell opposes development of the Bolsa Chica wetlands; Rohrabacher supports it. Crisell supports gun-control laws; Rohrabacher opposes them. Crisell wants a patients’ bill of rights; Rohrabacher doesn’t.

In Crisell’s campaign brochure is a six-page fold-out jammed with position statements, criticism of Rohrabacher’s conservative voting record and a photo of a woman holding prescription drugs in one hand and a box of cereal in another, illustrating the quandary for many seniors.

Two other candidates round out the ballot: Libertarian Don Hull and Constance Betton of the Natural Law Party. Hull is a marketing consultant and small-business owner from Costa Mesa. Betton, who lives in Newport Beach, is a realtor.

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47th District: Includes all or part of Newport Beach, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Orange, Mission Viejo, Villa Park, Lake Forest, Laguna Woods and Anaheim.

Graham, making his first run for office, is wading into a congressional district that has the largest GOP voter margin in the county. Cox got 69% of the vote in March, while Graham battled to the top against three other Democratic hopefuls.

A professor in UCI’s graduate school of management, Graham teaches trade and international negotiation, an area that plants him firmly in the same terrain as Cox. The incumbent is a specialist on the former Soviet Union and author of two congressional reports on espionage in China and promoting democracy in Russia.

But Graham believes Cox exhibits a “xenophobic” response to international issues, spending more time blaming targets like communists than stressing critical areas of agreement. “His is absolutely the wrong approach,” Graham said.

Graham supports boosting elementary teacher pay by $10,000 and has proposed serving the airport needs of both Orange and San Diego counties by building an airport at Camp Pendleton instead of the former El Toro Marine base.

Cox said he has read Graham’s campaign Web site and “his views on trade and mine are actually probably similar.”

Besides Nolan’s Libertarian challenge, Iris Adam of the Natural Law Party also will appear on the ballot. She is a colleague of Graham’s at UCI, where she is an analyst in the engineering school.

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48th District: This district includes Orange and San Diego counties, with all or part of San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Rancho Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo.

The race has attracted more attention for who’s not running than who is. Democrat Peter Kouvelis dropped out after winning the primary, saying he had no chance because national Democrats weren’t giving him enough money to mount a campaign.

Concerns about money in the race stem from the $3.5 million spent by Republican nominee Darrell Issa, most of it his own. Issa, a millionaire who runs a car-security company in Vista, offers familiar conservative Republican themes: reducing taxes and regulation, private investment of Social Security funds for younger workers, increased pay for military personnel.

This is the most crowded field among the district races, with Libertarian Joe Michael Cobb, Sharon K. Miles of the Natural Law Party and Reform candidate Eddie Rose. Rose is a former Laguna Niguel councilman who switched from the GOP. Cobb is a financial consultant and teacher from Dana Point, and Miles is a business owner who lives in Laguna Niguel.

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Cash Is Key

Source: Federal Elections Commission