Race for a Seat in House Heating Up

By Julie Tamaki

Feb. 24, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Former congressman and onetime state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren has the most endorsements from GOP lawmakers in Washington. State Sen. Rico Oller has the most support from conservative legislators in Sacramento. But political newcomer Mary Ose says she has the backing of the one Republican who matters most in the battle for the 3rd Congressional District: her younger brother.

“I have the endorsement of the only congressman who can vote in this district, and that’s Congressman Doug Ose,” she said.

In what one political consultant likened to having three teams on a basketball court, a crowded primary race is shaping up for the Republican nomination to replace retiring Rep. Doug Ose (R-Sacramento). His departure has unleashed a contest with all the makings of a good intraparty squabble, including plenty of posturing, big money and a controversial mailer on the subject of immigration.

“It’s a Republican family feud,” said Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the Target Book, a nonpartisan election guide.

The race is one of only a handful in California that are competitive in the March 2 primary, according to political analysts. They lay part of the blame on redistricting, which drew safe seats for incumbents in Congress and the Legislature.

“It’s very difficult to go against any incumbent of either party in the primary,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a USC political science professor.

Like the 3rd District race, another primary battleground is an open seat being vacated by Rep. Calvin Dooley, a Democrat from the San Joaquin Valley town of Hanford, who is retiring. There, two Democrats are facing off for their party’s 20th Congressional District nomination.

The contest between Dooley’s former chief of staff, Lisa Quigley, and former state Sen. Jim Costa (D-Fresno) is pitting an experienced and well-known lawmaker against an experienced staffer touting her youth and gender -- and the incumbent’s endorsement.

Quigley, the 38-year-old mother of two young children, has accused Costa of pandering to special interests. “I’m running as a mom, not another politician,” she said.

Costa, 51 -- a 24-year veteran of the Legislature, where he chaired the Senate Agriculture and Water Resources Committee -- suggested that Quigley was being disingenuous. He noted the endorsement she received from Emily’s List, a group that raises money for pro-choice Democratic female candidates, and her lengthy stint in the Washington political scene.

“She’s a politician,” said Costa, whose many endorsers include Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “Now she’s trying to become an elected politician.”

Analysts suggest that it is Costa’s race to win, given his electoral experience.

“Our working assumption is that he begins with a significant advantage but that it’s going to be hard,” said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of a nonpartisan political newsletter in Washington. “She has to make this about yesterday or tomorrow. And if she can do that and ride Dooley’s popularity, then lightning could strike.”

The winner is expected to face state Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield), who is competing against businessman Gino L. Martorana in the primary.

In Southern California, one race raising eyebrows is former Rep. Robert K. Dornan’s primary challenge of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) in the 46th District.

Dornan, 70, said he is seeking a return to Congress to help fight the war on terrorism and to counter what he described as Rohrabacher’s “lack of empathy toward Israel.” The former representative said he could bring to office “scholarship beyond any sitting member of Congress, including senators, on the depth of almost 14 centuries of bloody border fighting with the radical, expansionist side of Islam.”

Rohrabacher, 56, responded by releasing a statement explaining his position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I strongly believe that the only way to peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis is that the Palestinians must give up the right of return and Israel has to give up the settlements,” he said.

Republican political consultant Dan Schnur, who is not involved in the race, said he doubted that Dornan’s accusations would wash with voters. “Dana’s conservative credentials are as solid as they come,” he said. “It’s going to be very difficult to make the case against him from the right.”

Three Democrats are also running in the primary: Jim Brandt, an educator and software engineer; Tan D. Nguyen, a financial advisor; and Paul C. Wilkins, a rowing coach and businessman.

The outcomes of primaries -- by their nature one-sided -- are not necessarily telling. But, consultant Schnur said, the battle for Doug Ose’s seat could reflect a national trend of urban centers becoming more solidly Democratic while suburbs grow increasingly conservative.

“This area is clearly moving to the right politically,” said Schnur of the district, which includes Sacramento suburbs. “The question that will be settled in the primary is: How much more conservative has it become?”

In a heavily GOP district, Rothenberg said, the most conservative candidate often has the advantage in a primary. He tapped Republican Oller, from the small Sierra foothill town of San Andreas, as the favorite.

Oller, 45, who owns a construction supply company in addition to serving in the Senate, has declared himself the most conservative candidate in the race and has made illegal immigration a top priority, according to his campaign manager, Steve Davey.

“On the first day Rico is elected to Congress, he will introduce a bill that will prohibit any state in the union from granting a driver’s license to an illegal alien,” Davey said.

Oller has received flak, however, for a mailer distributed by his campaign that takes issue with Lungren’s voting record on immigration and features an image of a masked, turbaned man, with what appear to be fleeing illegal immigrants superimposed on the turban.

“Rico is letting voters know that Dan Lungren’s voting record when he was a Southern California congressman -- when it comes to illegal immigration -- is atrocious,” Davey said.

Wayne Johnson, a media consultant for Lungren, said the mailer fails to clarify that Lungren fought amnesty provisions in the bill in question and that President Reagan signed the eventual legislation.

“The main thing separating Rico Oller [from Lungren] is his stridency and his lack of political accomplishment,” Johnson said.

Lungren, 57, served as a congressman from the Long Beach area before becoming the state’s attorney general and, in 1998, losing the governor’s race to Democrat Gray Davis. The candidate said he wanted to return to Congress to work on homeland security issues after losing several friends in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to Johnson.

“He knows the ropes and he knows the issues,” Johnson said.

Newcomer Ose, 53, a businesswoman with a background in real estate development, said she wants to go to Washington to protect President Bush’s tax cuts and fight new taxes and wasteful spending.

“I’m a fiscal conservative,” she said. “Rock solid.”

Republican Richard Frankhuizen is also competing for the seat, as is Democratic candidate businessman Gabe Castillo.

One issue setting Lungren apart from his rivals is money.

Oller, according to Davey, has raised more than $1 million, including a $250,000 loan made by the candidate to his campaign. Ose announced that she had poured $465,000 more into her campaign earlier this month, bringing her personal contributions to nearly $800,000 and her overall total to more than $1 million.

Johnson declined to say how much Lungren, who is working at a Washington law firm, had raised.

But he acknowledged that his candidate was being outspent by what he described as “two millionaire candidates.”

Ose’s contribution to her campaign has triggered the so-called millionaires’ amendment, which increases the amounts of individual contributions -- from $2,000 to $6,000 -- allowed to certain House candidates facing opponents spending large sums of personal funds. Lungren, according to Johnson, has been able to take advantage of the higher contribution limits.

Money aside, Dick Rosengarten, publisher of the state political newsweekly CalPEEK, suggested that Ose might be able to win the seat.

“The question is,” he said, “do [Lungren and Oller] split the male, conservative vote and allow Mary to slip in?”