THE RACE FOR THE 45TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Alex Coolman

Democrats can talk all they want about the appeal of their positions

to Orange County voters, but Dana Rohrabacher thinks election results

pretty much speak for themselves.

The Republican incumbent in the 45th Congressional District says he

has kept his political formula fairly simple because it’s one that people

like and one that has kept him in office for six terms.

“The most important thing is that I’ve remained true to my fundamental

goals, which I believe are consistent with the goals of the people who

live in our congressional district,” Rohrabacher said in a telephone

interview from Washington, D.C.

What goals are those? It’s not that complicated, the congressman said.

“Advancing opportunity and justice,” he said, “and keeping the growth of

spending and taxes down.”

An avid surfer, Rohrabacher recently advanced a beach bill for

consideration in the next session of Congress, a measure he said is

“designed to focus research closer to the shoreline.”

But the most remarkable thing he’s done, Rohrabacher said, is simply

managing to stay on Capitol Hill as long as he has while sticking to his

philosophical guns.

“After someone’s been through 12 years in Congress, they get used to

the position and they get very seduced and compromised into going along

with higher levels of spending and taxation,” he said.

“I think my biggest accomplishment is that I haven’t been seduced by

the system.”