Rohrabacher faces Dornan

Alicia Robinson

It’s a political battle that could include everything up to B-1

bombers.

Former congressman and conservative talk show pundit Bob Dornan

filed papers on Friday afternoon to run against Rep. Dana Rohrabacher

in the March 2 Republican primary.

Despite an up-and-down history of friendship between the two

candidates, the campaign for the 46th District is expected to get

ugly.

“I’m just disappointed that Bob decided to do this,” Rohrabacher

said of Dornan’s decision to file. “This is all based on ego and an

old grudge, and I’m sorry that he doesn’t remember any of the

positive fights that we had while we were on the same team.”

That team fell apart after Dornan’s high-profile loss of his

Garden Grove-based Congressional seat to Rep. Loretta Sanchez in

1996. Dornan has loudly blamed that loss in part on a lack of support

by his fellow California Reps. Chris Cox, Ron Packard, Ed Royce and

Rohrabacher. He also lost a rematch in 1998.

Dornan, who earned numerous nicknames during his firebrand years

in Congress, among the most polite being “B-1 Bob,” also maintained

that he would never have been in the fight had he not given

Rohrabacher the safe Republican Huntington Beach district in 1992,

rather than take it himself after the last round of redistricting.

Rohrabacher, 56, a former journalist and speechwriter for Ronald

Reagan, has served in Congress since 1988.

Although Dornan helped him get his start in politics with an

endorsement, Rohrabacher is on his guard for the coming campaign.

“Bob is known as a very abusive and mean-spirited campaigner, so

no one ever takes him lightly,” he said. “I have to make sure I have

the money necessary to thwart and to explain what is expected to be a

race laced with highly personal attacks.”

Dornan has come out swinging. The statement that he is a

mudslinging campaigner “is a lie perpetrated by Democrats,” he said.

“I never put out a negative brochure in any of my campaigns until

I got hit first,” Dornan said. “I always try to run a campaign on the

issues.”

Dornan toyed with the idea of running against Rohrabacher in the

fall of 1999.

Dornan, 70, also has a long history of government service. He

served in the U.S. Air Force from 1953 to 1959 and was a congressman

from 1977 to 1983 and from 1985 to 1997.

It was the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that motivated him to

get back into politics, he said.

Local Republicans weren’t expecting the move and will have to

choose sides in the coming weeks.

“I have not seen Bob for several years, and I don’t know anyone

who has talked to him for several years, so such an announcement is a

real surprise,” Orange County Republican Party Chairman Tom Fuentes

said.

Dornan and Rohrabacher had similar voting records in Congress, so

it’s unlikely that one particular issue will be a factor in the race,

Fuentes said.

He expected Rohrabacher’s fellow legislators to support him.

“He works very closely with the other House members from Orange

County and the likelihood of their rallying behind him is high,”

Fuentes said.

Rohrabacher also said he and Dornan have similar political agendas

but that his opponent’s negativity will likely be a turnoff to

voters.

“Bob and I come from two different conservative roots,”

Rohrabacher said. “Bob is an old-line right-winger who is always

against things. ... A positive conservative approach is something

that is much more in tune with the voters of this district than what

Bob’s track record represents.”

But Dornan said his legislative record is not the same as

Rohrabacher’s, and he expects issues to be the most important factor

in the campaign.

“I don’t think I’m running against a Republican,” he said. “I

think I’m running against a Libertarian who changed his registration

so he could get elected.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She can be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

[email protected].