Five Candidates and an Old Golf Shop
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON – The five candidates vying to unseat Democratic Rep. Sam Farr of California have little in common – except their office address and the likelihood they will lose.
The Republican, the Libertarian, the Green, the Peace, and Freedom candidates and the write-in independent are sharing office space in a former Monterey, Calif., golf shop as they pursue long shot quests to topple the six-term House member.
Each candidate has his own desk and phone in the spacious storefront. They can step into private rooms to make calls, and they share costs. The Republican and the Peace and Freedom candidate have become good buddies.
The improbable arrangement saves money, but it’s also a purposeful statement about the near-impossibility of beating a congressional incumbent in California – or for that matter, in most districts.
“This American system of a representative government, it does not exist anymore. Here’s what exists: The incumbents get re-elected,” said Mark Risley, the Republican nominee in Farr’s Central Coast district.
The advantages of incumbency are making this year’s House races more like victory laps for most of those already in Washington. And the disadvantages of being a challenger have perhaps never been more stark: 53 House seats are on the ballot Tuesday in California and only one is a serious contest.
Nationwide, just three dozen or so of 435 House races are considered competitive. Even some presidential battleground states such as Ohio and Michigan boast not a single competitive House seat, making it unlikely that the GOP will lose control of the House November 2. The Democrats would need to gain 12 seats for that to happen.
“I call it a monopoly. I don’t think it’s good for the country,” said Joel Smolen, one of Mr. Risley’s officemates and the Libertarian nominee.
State legislatures nationwide have drawn congressional district lines to make seats safe for the party that holds them. The map created in California after the 2000 Census established 33 seats that are essentially safe for Democrats and 20 that Republicans can win, a ratio unlikely to change this year.
