It is not only Republicans who get left out of the lurch in elections due to gerrymandering. Qualified Democrats running in their 46th Congressional primary—to eventually challenge Congressman Dana Rohrabacher—will find a tough terrain come November.
Huntington Beach Mayor and City Councilwoman Debbie Cook announced her candidacy for the seat in February, stating that “We need new people with new passion and new ideas who have experience working across party lines to get results”, and basing her candidacy on a “growing energy gap, a struggling economy, global warming, the escalating costs of health care, and the war in Iraq.”
Cook’s opponent is 25 year old Technology Consultant Dan Kalmick, who has been attacking Cook’s candidacy from the right, stating that Cook cannot possibly win in the conservative district that stretches from Huntington Beach up to the Palos Verdes Peninsula—including the southern areas of Long Beach.
Both candidates are taking two very different approaches to the 25,000 dollar question of whether a Democrat can even win in this district, let alone beat incumbent Republican Dana Rohrabacher?
Kalmick is taking the approach that the best Democrat for this race is Republican-lite. This approach has been tried before with previous Dem contender, and former military man, Jim Brandt (failing twice, I might add).
Cook has not denied that her positions mirror most of those of the Democratic Establishment supporting her, including State Senator Alan Lowenthal, but is relying on her earlier experience in winning three elections in “conservative” Huntington Beach to prove her ability to challenge Rohrabacher.
The political divide between Republicans and Democrats is 48% to 32%, respectively, and this is a district that voted 54% in favor of President Bush in 2004. As long as Congressman Rohrabacher has been in office, he has never won with less than a 20% gap between him and the loser.
Tough beans for Democrats in an area that would probably have already turned over to them if it had not been for the 2000 gerrymandering overseen by the state’s top Democrats and Republicans.
Maybe Debbie Cook can talk to her endorsers, and they can set something up for her in 2012.