23rd District offers Capps and three new faces Only real race for primary is between 2 from GOP 2/18/02 By NORA WALLACE NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER Republicans Don Reganm and Beth Rogers are vying for their party's spot on the November ballot. Voters used to being in the 22nd Congressional District might see some strange things on their March 5 primary ballots. The 22nd District that Santa Barbara County residents have known for a decade is no longer, courtesy of the redistricting process. Starting in December, the area now represented by Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, will become the 23rd Congressional District. In addition to the new numeric designation, the region will have new boundaries as well. And they'll all be viable in next month's primary. The new district runs in a strip down the coastline, from the top of San Luis Obispo County down to Port Hueneme. Mrs. Capps is running unopposed in the primary. Grover Beach resident James E. Hill is running as a Libertarian. The only real race for the primary is between two Republicans: Shell Beach audiologist Don Regan and Carpinteria businesswoman Beth Rogers. Though the district and its geography are new, Mrs. Capps, 64, is still considered the incumbent. "This is a very big job, and I'm very honored to do it," Mrs. Capps said. "I realize every day, we get a lot of work accomplished. I have done a lot on behalf of the Central Coast, and there is so much to do." Mrs. Capps said she wants another term, to continue work on health care issues such as prescription drug coverage and a patient's bill of rights. She also will work toward a sound energy policy and would like to see full funding for children with special needs, she said. "These issues still are not done to my satisfaction," she said. "The work is ongoing." According to the Federal Election Commission, Mrs. Capps had $512,561 in her campaign war chest at the end of the last reporting period, which ended Dec. 31, 2001. Mr. Regan, an audiologist in Grover Beach, says his campaign is about representing all the residents of the Central Coast, not just those who live within the district boundaries. If he is elected in November, the 55-year-old political novice pledges to hold town hall meetings every month throughout the district. "People express to you things that bother them in their lives as it relates to how government is not serving their needs," he said. "I know I can help out with that if I'm elected." He sees the role of a congressperson as being a service provider, and says he doesn't see any personal advocacy happening in the district now. "You're there as a facilitator," he said. "If you can help make something happen, that's your job. If not, it's time to move over." He has three main tenets that he likes to promote, calling it his own "poem" for how the government should run. "Stay out of our business, stay out of our bedroom, stay out of our kitchen," Mr. Regan said. "It should be local issues being solved by local people." As a federal official, he said, he would mediate solutions, not create problems. He would promote making county and city grants available for those entities to deal with unfunded mandates, so "they can control their own destiny." According to the Federal Elections Commission, Mr. Regan had just $40 on hand at the end of the last finance reporting period. If he wins the primary, he said he will begin a sustained fund-raising campaign. For a number of years, Mrs. Rogers has been involved in politics on a different level. She is chairwoman of the Seneca Network, a Republican organization which seeks to increase the number of women running for public office. For the past 26 years, she has been managing general partner of Pacific Earth Resources, a real estate, farming and environmental horticulture business. She is counting on several factors to help her win both the primary and the general election on Nov. 5: She is a fluent Spanish speaker in a district that is 41 percent Latino residents, and one-third of the 23rd District is new to the incumbent, as well as the challengers. "To the degree anybody could have roots that are deep in the district and represent the cross-section, I'm it," said Mrs. Rogers, who has a doctoral degree in anthropology. "I represent the district because I'm a product of it. My family's been here since the 1880s. We have longevity. We've been here through all the changes." Mrs. Rogers, 56, believes she could "sit down with these different constituencies of the district, and they are a part of me. I understand how we can blend each of the different groups into a harmonious community and see them flourish." Mrs. Rogers promotes fully deductible day care and senior care. She also wants to see deductible health care premiums, especially for self-employed people. "Family values means money in the family for you to take care of your family," she said. "You can't be sending it to Sacramento and Washington." According to the Federal Election Commission, Mrs. Rogers had $114,632 at the end of the last reporting period, which ended Dec. 31, 2001. Mr. Hill has never run for public office before, but was formerly president of a 1,500-member national historical society dealing with the Northern Pacific Railway. "Reducing government and dramatically reducing taxes would be obviously the major things I'm interested in promoting," Mr. Hill explained. Mr. Hill also said he would like to work toward improving schools, and "returning money to taxpayers." "If we did away with the federal regulators that are ostensibly involved in schools, issuing edicts that have to be complied with at more and more expense, if we get rid of that and replace it with vouchers, parents would have more control," he said. "We could get more competition in the system, and improve quality." The 49-year-old has been employed at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County for 20 years. He's currently a pressure piping inspector. Mr. Hill will also campaign on a platform that charges U.S. foreign policy is misguided. "I'm very concerned we have troops in more countries around the world than not," he said. "I'd like to see a dramatic reduction in that." Get printer-friendly version