The candidate who’s just a phone call away

Steve Young claims to be having the time of his life. “I frankly have never had more fun,” he says Friday afternoon, 11 days before a congressional election he’s almost certain to lose.

Not knowing Young, I’m in no position to challenge his statement. But the most fun ever?

“I enjoy meeting people, etc., etc.,” he says. “I have people calling me and telling me for once they’re going to the polls to vote for someone and not against someone.” He prides himself on giving any voter his private cellphone number.

As a Democrat in a longtime Republican stronghold district, that might not count as a particularly burdensome offer.

However, like Democrats before him in Orange County’s GOP congressional bastions, Young says things are changing. He says he’s planning to knock off Republican Congressman John Campbell on Nov. 7 (Libertarian candidate Bruce Cohen is also running), but I suggest to Young that getting anything around 40% to 45% of the vote would be momentous.

Here’s why: Campbell is a first-termer after winning a special election last December to fill the 48th District vacancy left by Christopher Cox, one of the county’s more illustrious politicians in recent years. Cox’s victory margins were remarkably consistent: From his first win in 1988 until his last race in 2004, Cox drew between 65% and 68% every two years except in 1994, when the Republican Revolution bumped him to 72%.

If Campbell duplicates Cox’s numbers, well, you can do the math for Young.

“Your premise is that Campbell is another Cox, and the answer is no,” Young says. He challenges my assessment that the district, which includes coastal Orange County cities and moves inland as far as Irvine and Tustin, is “impregnable” to Democrats.

Young, a 52-year-old trial lawyer, thinks some Republicans aren’t as warm to Campbell as they were to Cox and that his campaign is more organized and energetic than past Democratic efforts.

There’s more, he says.

“Republican registration in the district has been as high as 72% in the past,” he says.

“Do you know what it is today?”

He tells me it’s 49.6%, and he’s right. He also knows the Democratic registration is 27%. Another 19% of voters are in the “declined to state” category. Those numbers tell Young that his task is to get out a vote that cuts across party lines.

To that end, he says, he’s not going overboard on the campaign trail about his Democratic credentials. He says both parties need to start talking about “what’s best for America” instead of hewing to party lines. Ask him how he’ll reverse the course in his GOP-dominated district, and he says, “It’ll be a matter of when the American people start demanding change regardless of what party registration is.”

In last December’s election, Campbell drew 44% to Young’s 29%. However, Minuteman candidate James Gilchrist pulled 25% from what likely were mostly Republican voters.

With the Democrats’ dismal track record in the district, it’s perhaps not surprising that Young can’t get much news coverage. He tried a bit of street theater on Thursday, showing up outside Campbell’s office and staging a “debate” without Campbell. Neither The Times nor the Orange County Register showed up, he notes.

Campbell spokesman Myal Greene dismissed the effort as “antics” and says Campbell debated Young during last year’s election. Greene says Young hadn’t made any debate requests before the Thursday appearance.

The Campbell campaign “is anticipating a comfortable margin of victory” and that its 49% GOP registration in the district gives it a sizable advantage, Greene notes.

I must say, it sounds like business as usual in the district.

Which prompts me to ask Young, as politely as I could, if he were on a fool’s errand. “I don’t believe in sacrificial lambs,” he says.

“But what I do feel is this campaign is less about me as an individual and more about a movement, the sense of the people wanting responsiveness again and input. That’s what we’re offering.”

Gratz. Kingsbury. Laine. Avalos. Graham.

Recognize any of those names?

Probably not. They’re among the Orange County Democrats buried under the Cox avalanche.

Young doesn’t plan to join their ranks. He foresees a new era of bipartisanship and emphasis on “solutions,” regardless of which party thinks of them.

For my last question, I wanted to double-check something.

“Are you sure you want voters calling your cellphone?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he says, cheerfully, “I do.”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.