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.”
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