Rep. Horn of Long Beach to Retire

Rep. Steve Horn (R-Long Beach), one of the House’s dwindling number of moderate Republicans, became the first casualty Tuesday of California’s redrawing of district boundaries, announcing that he will retire rather than run for reelection next year in a new, more Democratic district.

With a proposed redistricting map making room for 53 House seats in California--one more than now--Horn’s decision means the state’s delegation will get at least two new faces in the 2002 election. A third seat could open up if embattled Rep. Gary Condit (D-Ceres) chooses not to run for reelection.

Horn, increasingly a political anomaly in a Democratic-trending district, barely won reelection last year. The redistricting plan drawn by a consultant to Democratic lawmakers clearly aimed to end his House career. It moves his home and the bulk of Long Beach into the 37th District, now represented by Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Carson).

At the same time, the Orange-County-based 45th District of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) would stretch up the coast to take in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and parts of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Other areas now represented by Rohrabacher would be split between the 33rd District of Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles) and the newly created Latino-majority 53rd District.

“The redistricting process has created major changes in the areas constituting the 38th District,” Horn said in a statement Tuesday. “In order to remove any doubt about my plans, I want to formally announce that I will be retiring from Congress at the end of this term, in January 2003.”

Horn, 70, former president of Cal State Long Beach, has spent his near-decade on Capitol Hill as a maverick. Last year, he broke with GOP colleagues on 29% of the votes that split along party lines--more than any Republican from the West, according to Congressional Quarterly.

Horn voted to impeach President Bill Clinton. But he has supported abortion rights and federal funding for the arts. He recently was the only Republican in California’s House delegation to vote against oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Among his accomplishments was helping to oversee the government’s Y2K computer readiness. A student of government, he owns more than 6,000 books on Congress and U.S. history and politics, and has written three books on congressional ethics, budgeting and organization.

Horn, who was traveling Tuesday, could not be reached for comment. But his son, Steve Horn Jr., said redistricting was the prime factor in the decision.

He said his father did not harbor any bitter feelings.

“This is a numbers game,” said the younger Horn. “It’s not a personality game.”

GOP strategist Allan Hoffenblum called Horn a “victim of his own success. The only way [Democrats] were able to finally defeat him was to reapportion him out of his district.”

Horn, first elected in 1992, won by fewer than 2,000 votes last year in a district that includes Bellflower, Downey, Paramount, Signal Hill and most of Lakewood and Long Beach.

Those active in local politics cited his strong roots in the district and his moderate political views, which helped him keep his seat despite a large and growing Democratic edge in registration.

Gerrie Schipske, a Democratic nurse practitioner and attorney from Long Beach who nearly defeated him in November, said the district, and Long Beach in particular, will miss Horn.

“Steve Horn has had a very, very credible and outstanding career in public service,” she said, adding that his departure--and the remapping--means the state’s fifth largest city will be split among districts. “It will have a dramatic impact on how well Long Beach is taken care of,” said Schipske, who said she plans to challenge Rohrabacher.

Adam Mendelsohn, a Long Beach-based GOP consultant, said Horn’s ability to repeatedly win reelection in a Democratic district without accepting contributions from political action committees “is a testament to his strength.”

“What Long Beach got was not only a congressman who was willing to go against his own party if he felt it was important to his district but also someone who knew Long Beach inside and out. . . . Politics didn’t happen in Long Beach without Steve Horn playing some role in it,” Mendelsohn said.

Longtime Long Beach Democratic activist Joy Dowell campaigned for Horn’s foes but is angry about the redistricting.

“This gerrymandering is a real slap in the face to Long Beach, and I just can’t see how it will stand up,” she said.