Running against the odds

Douglas Zimmerman

What makes someone run a losing political race? That’s a question,

actually, that most of the candidates now campaigning for national

office have to be asking themselves.

Statistics show that the vast majority of incumbents for House and

Senate seats -- in the neighborhood of 95% or more -- win reelection.

For every sure thing, there are one, two or more candidates who will

wake up on Nov. 3 on the downside of political fortune.

In districts such as the 46th, which includes Huntington Beach,

the odds can seem even longer because they are “safe” seats -- ones

that almost by default will go to one of the country’s two main

parties.

In the 46th Congressional District, which Rep. Dana Rohrabacher

has represented since the late 1980s, Republicans have that strangle

hold on the office. Forty-eight percent of voters are registered with

the GOP.

Take, for example, the 2002 race. In it, Rohrabacher trounced a

fairly aggressive Democratic challenger, Gerrie Schipske. Rohrabacher

received 76,332 votes to Schipske’s 38,854.

Or take, as a primer, the March 2 primary. Rohrabacher received

68,969 votes. His Democratic challenger, Jim Brandt, notched 21,317.

But even that nearly 50,000 margin doesn’t make a true long shot.

During the same March 2 primary, Green Party candidate Tom Lash

received just 580 votes.

But that hasn’t stopped Lash’s run. Frustrated with his choices in

2002, Lash decided he needed to give voters more choices -- even if

most wouldn’t take them.

Running on a bare-bones budget, Lash largely has run the campaign

himself, working out of his Huntington Beach home.

Along with his supporters, he has organized fundraisers, biked

across the district and gone on campaign trips as far as Catalina,

riding around the island with Green Party members on a golf cart to

meet as many voters as possible.

During the past months, Independent photographer Douglas Zimmerman

followed Lash as he continued his long, uphill fight to find out what

drives such a campaign.