District 23 Not a Lock, Says GOP Challenger

Republicans joke that the 23rd Congressional District, a sliver of coastal California stretching 300 miles from San Luis Obispo County to Oxnard, is so narrow at points that high tide obliterates it.

The odd shape, they claim, stems from contorted boundaries drawn by Democrats three years ago to guarantee their party a perpetual seat.

Don Regan, though, isn’t so sure that the area is a lost cause for Republicans. Running against three-term Democratic incumbent Lois Capps, the 58-year-old audiologist from Grover Beach says he is undaunted by the district’s formidable Democratic presence. Libertarian Michael Favorite, a financial advisor from Santa Maria, is also a candidate for the seat.

“The numbers aren’t a measure of the district’s heart and conscience,” Regan said in an interview. “They don’t tell the full story.”

Democrats outnumber Republicans in the district 45% to 32%. However, Regan points out, most residents supported last year’s gubernatorial recall, challenging the Democrats’ official line.

In fact, 60% of the district’s voters opted for Republicans in that election -- 44% for Arnold Schwarzenegger and 16% for Tom McClintock.

Contending that his views as “a nonpartisan Republican” will draw the support of Democrats and independents, Regan has painted Capps as a well-intended lightweight.

“She’s a nice lady -- that’s a word often associated with her -- but she’s not a leader,” Regan said. “She’s just keeping the seat warm.”

Regan charges that Capps has skimped on services to her constituents and has all but ignored such pressing local problems as the traffic snarl on U.S. 101.

“They should open up a lane now,” he said. “I would do whatever I can do as a congressman to get traffic moving. Then, let’s plan for tomorrow. You can’t ask people to languish forever.”

Capps countered that the traffic problem has been “very much front and center for me,” pointing out a pending $600,000 federal grant she helped secure to plan improvements on the crowded road.

Without a systematic attempt to gain the support of local communities, any plan will be doomed, she said, citing the vigorous resistance posed by Montecito residents to a proposed widening of the freeway in the 1990s.

Capps, 66, a registered nurse, first took her seat in a 1998 special election. Her husband, UC Santa Barbara religion professor Walter Capps, had served less than a year in Congress before dying unexpectedly.

In Washington, the congresswoman has worked for legislation that reflects her strong interest in health issues. She successfully sponsored bills aimed at expanding the pool of nurses in the U.S. and establishing programs to treat and prevent strokes.

Capps’ opponent calls her “an environmental obstructionist,” but she said she was proud of her efforts to bar additional drilling for oil offshore and in Los Padres National Forest. She has not taken a firm position on two liquefied natural gas terminals proposed in the Santa Barbara Channel but said she “has not been persuaded that [they] aren’t harmful.”

In 2002, Capps was in the congressional minority voting against authorizing military force in Iraq. Regan said he would have voted for it.

“The information that people had at the time seemed convincing,” he said. “On hindsight, it may have been a bad decision, but we’re there.”

Regan chided Capps for voting against the war but approving an $87-billion military appropriation for it.

However, she defended that vote, saying “the minute we invaded, I supported our troops all the way.”

Regan has never held public office, except an appointed post on a state board governing speech and hearing specialists. He said he would be as accessible to constituents as Robert J. Lagomarsino, the former longtime congressman who was “the district’s last hat-and-a-handshake guy, out there meeting and greeting people.”

In an unusual move, Regan has disclosed the details of a 1998 San Luis Obispo arrest for speeding and resisting arrest, an encounter during which, he said, he was pepper-sprayed and beaten by a California Highway Patrol officer.

Regan, who was sentenced to community service and worked with the Special Olympics, said he did nothing wrong.

This will be Regan’s second bid for election. In 2002, he lost the Republican congressional nomination to Beth Rogers, a well-known businesswoman who poured more than $700,000 of her own money into her campaign.

Regan said he has dug about $150,000 out of his savings, and has spent virtually all he has raised. Capps has about $400,000 on hand, according to campaign finance reports.

Numbers like that are not encouraging, said Alan Hoffenblum, a Republican strategist who publishes the “California Target Book,” a guide to state and federal races.

“This is not a totally safe seat for the Democrats, but it would take a multimillion-dollar effort to seriously challenge Capps,” he said. “I don’t see anything that shows this to be a competitive situation.”