District 24: New Name vs. Veteran

One is a veteran Congressman who touts his role in shielding Ventura County’s only military base from closure; the other is a professor of national security issues who teaches at the Navy base.

The incumbent Republican points to his long experience in Washington, while his Democratic opponent chides him for being an ineffective lawmaker who refuses to debate.

But then Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) is seeking his 10th term in a district where Republicans hold a 12-point lead in voter registration, while challenger Brett Wagner is an untried candidate with little name recognition.

So goes this year’s race to represent the 24th Congressional District, which covers most of Ventura County and Buellton, Lompoc and Solvang in Santa Barbara County. Gallegly, 60, is a married father of four adult children and a former businessman and real estate broker from Simi Valley. He travels home every weekend from Washington to stay in touch with the people he serves.

Wagner, 45, is single with a permanent home on a ranch near Lompoc. But he’s been staying in the guesthouse of a supporter in Ojai during the campaign.

Although polls conducted by Wagner’s campaign show he is within five points of Gallegly, with a five-point margin of error, the political reality is that the majority of congressional incumbents win reelection. There are several reasons for the advantage, including redrawn districts that favor the party in office. It is also true that Gallegly and other incumbents are able to raise money year-round and develop hefty campaign war chests by the time challengers step up.

With three weeks to go until the Nov. 2 election, Wagner has raised about $160,000, well short of his $250,000 goal. Gallegly’s campaign has socked away $1.2 million.

“I’m impressed that Wagner is making such a spirited run as he is,” said Herbert Gooch, chairman of the political science department at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. “But it’s an uphill battle. You’re talking about incumbency and money in a huge district that’s well spread out.”

Gallegly said the key to success is not about dollars but about commitment and loyalty to constituents, the people who have kept him in office for nine two-year terms.

“The objective is to win the election, and of course the best way to do that is to do your job and keep the commitments that you made,” Gallegly said last week. “I’ve worked for nine terms and the thing is, you obviously can’t appeal to everyone because not everyone has the same idea for the direction the country should go in. But you make commitments and you keep them. If you don’t, they’ll find an alternative.”

On the campaign trail, Wagner has chided his opponent for being “invisible” during the campaign by not participating in political forums and ignoring Wagner’s challenge to debate. But Gallegly said his reelection strategy is simple: Keep doing his job.

“The most important thing is to do the job I was elected to do,” Gallegly said.

Over the years, he has learned there are two key functions to running a congressional office: constituent services and “your role as a legislator.” He said he has the best congressional staff in California, consisting of seasoned professionals, some of whom have served at least a dozen years.

He points to his service on four House legislative committees, including an appointment this session by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Being singled out by Hastert, he said, showed his “effectiveness on getting things into legislation.”

He also is a member of the Committee on International Relations and heads its subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights. The appointments put him at the “forefront of homeland security and the United States’ war against terrorism,” he states on his website.

He is a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee and its subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims and has “actively worked to increase our ability to stop terrorists and foreign criminals from entering the United States,” he said. He also is a member of the Resources Committee.

“On the legislative side, there’s only a handful of individuals who serve on more than two committees of Congress,” Gallegly said. “An appointment to the intelligence committee is without question as high a compliment a congressman can be paid.”

He has a 98% voting attendance record.

But Wagner said there are chinks in Gallegly’s armor, including that few of Gallegly’s 17 bills and amendments introduced in the last 20 months have moved beyond committee to become law.

“He doesn’t work his bills,” said Wagner, who is also the president of a public policy think tank in Santa Barbara. “He just introduces them and lets them die.”

Wagner said he would be far more aggressive in pushing legislation, including bills supporting veterans and military personnel.

As a professor of national security decision-making for the U.S. Naval War College at Naval Base Ventura County, Wagner’s interest in the military is personal. And as head of the nonprofit California Center for Strategic Studies, he helped craft a $10-billion deal for the United States to purchase all the stockpiles of nuclear weapon-grade materials owned by the former Soviet Union to prevent them from falling into terrorist hands.

Although the deal was introduced to Congress in 2001 in a bill sponsored by Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara), it was defeated in the House and Senate. Gallegly voted against the measure.

Gallegly takes credit for helping to keep Naval Base Ventura County open during a long series of base closures nationwide and secured $16 million this year for the naval station and other local defense projects, including those at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc and Rockwell Scientific Co. in Thousand Oaks.

Gallegly, who has long battled illegal immigration, has introduced a bill to keep terrorists from entering the country by requiring a new type of identification card for foreigners. Wagner is touting a plan to create a 9/11-type commission to evaluate and improve the nation’s immigration policies, which he calls “a system in crisis.”

Despite Gallegly’s obvious advantages, Wagner is undeterred.

“I feel confident we have a good chance at victory,” Wagner said. “It all depends on who shows up on election day.”