Contest for Congress Up for Grabs

Roy Ashburn’s run for Congress would appear a long shot, at least on paper.

He is a Republican in a solidly Democratic district. Unlike his opponent, Jim Costa, or the outgoing congressman, Cal Dooley, Ashburn didn’t grow up on a San Joaquin Valley farm. He has never milked a cow or picked a grape.

Short and round, he is more doughboy than cowboy.

But Ashburn, a state senator from Bakersfield, sees none of this as a liability in his fight to win the 20th Congressional District, which takes in Kern, Kings and Fresno counties, a 140-mile long swath of big farms and sprawling suburbs.

When it came time to shoot his first TV ad, Ashburn did what valley politicians have been doing for years. He put on his best Levi’s, Wrangler shirt and boots and headed into the almond orchards and cotton fields.

If his outfit looked a little too fresh-off-the-rack, he sung the wonders of irrigated agriculture like an old hand.

Ashburn, the ads say, would deliver water where Costa, a veteran lawmaker, had delivered only broken promises. Ashburn would deliver tax relief where Costa, a twin of Gray Davis, had delivered the “biggest tax increase in California history.”

“Costa,” the ads proclaimed, “is gonna cost ya.”

The catchy slogan, aided by $1.5 million from the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, has been playing with enough frequency that some political watchers are calling the race the only congressional district truly up for grabs in California.

“Give Roy credit. He took a 21-point deficit and has turned it into a race,” said state Sen. Dean Florez, a Kern County Democrat who supports Costa. “He’s making Jim work extra hard.”

Most political insiders still give a clear edge to the 52-year-old Costa, the son of Portuguese dairy farmers who grew up on Fresno’s rural west side. Costa’s record during 24 years in the state Assembly and Senate has been solidly pro-agriculture.

Ashburn’s ads notwithstanding, Costa has pushed through several pieces of legislation that have funded water banks and raised dams to produce more water for farms.

Costa says Ashburn’s brand of conservatism -- anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-tax, pro-gun -- is a poor fit in a district where Democrats hold a 51% to 35% advantage in voter registration.

“Roy Ashburn broke with the moderate wing of the Republican Party about 10 years ago and joined the far right wing,” Costa said. “He’s an extreme partisan whose views are out of sync with the valley’s mainstream.”

But the valley is also the state’s great exception.

Cut off by mountains from Los Angeles and San Francisco, the flatland often seems more a piece of Texas than California. All three counties in the district, despite a majority Latino population, voted in a big way for George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Along rural highways, signs affixed to old cotton trailers shout support for turning rivers into irrigation canals and opposition to abortion, the United Nations and liberal federal judges.

Dooley, the 14-year congressman, was nothing if not a middle-of-the road Democrat.

“When you look at the people who make up this district, I’m much closer to their views than Costa,” said the 50-year-old Ashburn, who has never lost an election in 20 years. “His voting record, from promoting gay marriage and abortion to receiving an ‘F’ from the National Rifle Assn., is much more liberal.”

Both candidates share the same weak spot -- a record of opposing legislation that would clean the air in what is now the nation’s smoggiest basin. Both are hoping to win over Latino voters -- the election’s big unknown. How many will show up at the polls and how will they vote?

Costa said migrant farmworkers from Mexico deserve a chance at U.S. citizenship after years of picking crops crucial to the valley’s economy. Ashburn, who supports a stronger border policy, advocates a guest-worker program that allows farmworkers to travel back and forth for harvests.

“I’m not talking about bringing back the exploitation of the old bracero program,” Ashburn said.

“I’m talking about a system that allows them to come to California and earn a good wage but return home to their families in Mexico.”