Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.)Bill Clark/AP
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) won his first election to the House of Representatives in 1988 with 64 percent of the vote. He has been re-elected 13 times since then. And even if he beat his most recent challenger by almost 17 percentage pointsSome Democrats now think this could be the final term for the Southern California conservative Political he doubled”Putin’s favorite congress.“
Demonstrators, sometimes numbered in the hundreds, gather outside Rohrabacher’s office every Tuesday at 1 p.m. “He’s been our congressman for a long time,” laments Diana Carey, vice chairwoman of the Orange County Democratic Party. “But because the district was predominantly Republican, my opinion is that he’s been in cruise control.” Thanks to changing demographics in Orange County and newly disenfranchised liberal voters, Carey doesn’t think Rohrabacher’s seat is any more secure.
Recently, Rohrabacher has been embroiled in scandal over possible collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia. Like Trump, Rohrabacher, who claims he once lost a drunken arm wrestling match with Vladimir Putin in the 1990s, believes the Russian government is unfairly demonized. (During the 1980s, Rohrabacher was a staunch anti-communist who sided with the anti-Soviet mujahedeen in Afghanistan). he shrugged the allegations of Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, claiming that the United States is guilty of similar actions. In May, the New York Times said that in 2012 the FBI warned Rohrabacher that Russian spies were trying to recruit him. Two days before, the Washington Post reported on a June 2016 recording in which House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, “There are two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” (McCarthy assured Rohrabacher the remarks were intended as a joke.)
But of all the issues where Rohrabacher and Trump align, Russia may be the least pressing concern for constituents rallying against him. So far, Rohrabacher has voted in line with Trump’s positions more than 93 percent of the time, according to Five Thirty Eightincluding I vote in favor of the GOP health care bill that would effectively end Obamacare. Rohrabacher pushed hard for the bill, warning his GOP colleagues that letting Trump’s first major legislative effort die would halt the president’s momentum. “If this goes down,” he said in March, “we have to castrate our President Trump. Don’t cut the balls off your bull and wait for him to come out and finish the job. Health care is a top issue in the 48th District, Carey says.” I’ve had conversations with people who are absolutely beside themselves, afraid they’re going to lose coverage.”
While Rohrabacher won his last race in a close landslide, his district went for Hillary Clinton in the presidential election. He won by a slim margin, but it was enough for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to report the district as a top target to flip in 2018. If Democrats hope to best Rohrabacher in the midterms, they have a lot of work to do, he says. Justin Wallin, an Orange County-based pollster who runs an opinion research firm. “I don’t think Dana has carved out a position as a firebrand for any political figure except Ronald Reagan,” Wallin says, referring to Rohrabacher’s early days working in the Reagan White House. “He tends to align quite naturally with that district in his outlook, his personality and his political views. His district sees him as independent, and when Dana takes a position on something that seems to be out of the mainstream, which can strengthen its favorable estimation”.
Two Democrats have announced bids to run against Rohrabacher. One is the candidate for the first time Harley Rouda, a businessman and lawyer who gave $9,200 to Republican candidates for Congress and nothing to the Democrats between 1993 and 2007. The other is Boyd Robertsa Laguna Beach real estate agent who has he promised to work for impeachment Trump and who ended up the last among five candidates running for a school board position in Hemet, California, in 2012. Both are to attack Rohrabacher for his sympathetic position towards Russia. “The district will vote (Rohrabacher) out because I think there’s something with Russia. I think I can collect money from him,” Roberts said. Los Angeles Times. In an online adRouda calls Rohrabacher “one of the most entrenched members of the Washington establishment” and promises to get “tough on Russia” if elected.
“They’re both kind of flying the flag on the Russia thing, and I just don’t think that’s going to get them over the line,” Wallin says. Carey declined to comment on either candidate, although he says a third challenger will announce a bid this summer. Meanwhile, the DCCC has yet to throw its support behind anyone. “Without anything dramatic happening, I’d say it’s a lot safer than a lot of other districts in the area,” Wallin says.
Yet Carey thinks that as long as Democrats continue to organize with the same intensity they’ve shown so far, they can turn the district blue. “We have a lot of people who said they’ve never paid attention before, a lot of people with no party preference who are really concerned about democracy,” he says. When asked if people in the district continue to be engaged, she replies: “So far I think the energy remains. I tell people: ‘This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.’ But I think while Trump keeps tweeting, we’ll keep getting interested!
