The District 36 Congressional race mirrors a national divide about the role of government
Democratic congressional candidate Janice Hahn had a dismaying realization as she watched the first debate among the Republicans vying for the presidency last week.
“I kept listening and listening and then it occurred it me,” Hahn said. “These people hate government. They think all government is bad.”
Hahn serves on the Los Angeles City Council. Her father Kenneth Hahn was a longtime L.A. County Supervisor and her brother, James Hahn, is the former mayor of Los Angeles. It is not quite a radical view in these politically charged times, but it is one nonetheless rarely expressed: Hahn has an unabashed belief in the ability of government to do good things.
“It probably has a lot to do with the fact that Kenny Hahn was my dad and I watched him take county government and make it work for people, protecting their health, protecting their safety, creating jobs, as well as filling pot holes and trimming trees,” Hahn said. “I think government does have a role in our lives. Certainly, we have got to get a handle on this spending – everyone knows that. We’ve got to get this deficit down. But it’s the wrong time, in my opinion, to stop investing in our infrastructure, in clean energy, and education.”
Her opponent could hardly disagree more vigorously. Craig Huey is a Tea Party Republican who has never held elected office and rails against “career politicians.” He proposes a vast overhaul, one that puts entire departments of the federal government on the chopping block – including the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency.
In terms of political philosophy, Huey looks to the example of Ronald Reagan.
“Basically, what he did is he had an understanding that government creates more problems than it solves, that the government needs to get out of the way so that individuals can create jobs and wealth and innovate and be able to create opportunities for everyone,” Huey said. “The value of the individual is so important – every time the government gets bigger, the value of the individual gets smaller.”
Hahn is considered heavily favored to win the July 12 Special election to replace Jane Harmon, given the fact that Democrats enjoy an 18 percent registration edge in District 36. But Huey surprised political observers nationwide by defeating California Secretary of State Debra Bowen and a field of 15 other candidates in May’s “jungle primary.” His campaign believes early numbers show another upset in the making – the website Politico last week released early numbers from the county registrar’s office that showed Republicans gaining ground in early vote-by-mail tabulations, with 13,343 Republican ballots trailing Democratic totals only 692 votes.
The campaign has been bitterly fought. In particular, Huey took the unusual step of delivering door-to-door a Fox News report on DVD alleging that Hahn funded known gang members in gang intervention programs. The allegation was mirrored by a third-party video that went viral on the Internet that depicted Hahn pole dancing with gang members.
“I’ve been in politics my whole life – I have only been in politics myself ten years, but I grew up with my dad and my brother, so we have seen it all,” Hahn said. “Honestly, I’ve never seen the kind of obscene, over-the-top vulgar attack ads as I’ve seen in this race from the other side. It’s such a smear campaign. I really feel they are spreading lies door-to-door…a smear campaign that uses some video that portrays me as some stripper on a pole taking money from gang members? I think that is really an insult to the voters of this congressional district. I think people are better than that.”
Huey distanced his campaign from the viral video and denounced it as racist and sexist. But the Hahn campaign showed that the producer of the video, Turn Right USA, at one point shared a mailing address with a Huey campaign vendor, Campaign L.A., a firm that makes campaign signs, which was also found to have registered Turn Right USA’s website. Meanwhile, the Pulitzer Prize winning fact-checking site Polifact.com found allegations that Hahn was directly connected to funding active gang members to be false.
Fox has stood by the story, as has Huey. He claimed that his campaign has tried to remain largely positive but acknowledged that the DVD was “probably one of the boldest things I did” in the campaign. He argued the gang intervention issue revealed fundamental philosophical differences between himself and Hahn.
“I think that investigative report just shows how frivolously money is spent,” Huey said. “I mean, the fact that money would go to people still involved in gangs and drugs and stuff is ridiculous.”
Allegations from Huey’s past have also surfaced, largely centered on his devout religious beliefs and how they have sometimes played out in the public arena. He once denounced Planned Parenthood – which he wants defunded – as a “murder mill,” a statement the Hahn campaign has highlighted in its ads. A letter Huey wrote in 2001 defending the expansion of the church he attended in Rolling Hills also used strong language, accusing opposing “slick lawyers with PowerPoint presentations” of essentially doing the devil’s work.
“I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised,” Huey wrote. “Throughout history Satan has stirred up opposition to God’s purposes and plans. It reminds me of Nehemiah in the Bible. You’ll recall how he faces intense opposition to God’s work.”
A declaration by Huey’s ex-wife, Angela Joy Huey, from their 1991 divorce proceedings claims that he brought a small group into their home for a “prayer meeting” in front of the couple’s three children praying for her soul because she had “fallen away from the Lord.” According to the document, he also told the children, “I’m going to pray for mommy. The devil has mommy’s mind.”
Huey denied the accusations made in his ex-wife’s declaration.
“The only thing I can say is in a divorce things are said that aren’t true and things are exaggerated in order to accomplish what one side of the divorce wants,” he said. “That is just common and that is what happened in this case. There is very little truth in that document…the best testimony to that fact is my kids – all of them are working on the campaign, and all of them are behind it 100 percent.”
Hahn said that the documents are relevant to the campaign insofar as they reveal a man unable to compromise.
“Just because someone is opposing you, they are not evil,” she said. “I think that is probably at the heart of the cantankerous, toxic rhetoric, somehow – this idea that those who may have a different opinion are evil. We’ve got to lay that down if we are going to come together and work across the aisle. You can’t find common ground if you start out thinking your opponents are evil.”
Huey noted that he and Hahn attended the same church in 2002 and that the letter he wrote went out to fewer than 100 people involved in the expansion committee.
“I’m not sure how that plays into the issue of compromise – it really doesn’t,” he said. “But as far as the issue of compromise, I think there are certain things you compromise on, and certain things you negotiate on. How you do that depends on circumstances…I am not a career politician who says that the highest political honor is compromise. No, the highest politic honor is to do what is right.”
Huey said Hahn is using everything at her disposal to distract voters from the real issue at hand, which is the economy. Huey, who runs a direct marketing business, argues that the combination of excessive taxation and overregulation has created a situation in which the economy is “about to go off a cliff.” He said the choice between him and Hahn is clear.
“It’s a huge contrast,” he said. “It’s career politicians who have gotten us in trouble. They spend and spend and spend, and their solution is always to regulate and tax, and that is what has brought our economy to the brink of disaster. What they do is cater to special interests and photo ops and whatever. As a business owner, I am used to making tough decisions and getting things done…I don’t want to play these political games about who gets on what committee, chairmanships, being liked by everyone. It’s a difference in philosophy where this is not my career to be in politics. Where America is headed is not a pretty picture, and we’ve got to make some changes.”
Huey’s biggest issue is attacking government spending and what he argues is its dangerously growing power over individuals and businesses. He has targeted several large federal agencies and programs for drastic cuts and possible elimination, including the Federal Drug Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, and federal agricultural subsidies.
“You can’t have $1.6 trillion deficit and a $14.4 trillion nation debt and not have problems,” he said. “Forty cents out of every dollar is spent on servicing the debt – not paying for defense and the military or any programs, but on servicing this debt. This is beyond what anybody can say is sustainable.”
That debt, argues Hahn, was largely accumulated under President George Bush’s administration. She points at the Bush tax cuts and the “off the book” funding of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as the chief reasons for the debt and notes that he’d inherited a surplus from Democratic President Bill Clinton.
“And the last time I checked, we are in this financial crisis because of some Wall Street bankers who had no accountability and no oversight,” Hahn said. “And that is what threw this country into a tailspin – the mortgages, the subprime lending….There was not enough oversight and I honestly believe that is why we are in this situation.”
Hahn said that Huey’s support for the budget plan proposed by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) shows that cuts he wants to make would target the middle class and seniors by drastically restructuring and privatizing such programs as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
“Americans know how to get through tough times,” she said. “We know how to sacrifice. And we know how to stand up for our principles. I think there are some values in this country that are dear and need to be protected. I think that is Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. People have a right to know the government made a promise when they were paying into the system that it would be there when they needed it. So now, at this point, to change it while we continue to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and corporate jet owners and CEO’s of corporations who send jobs overseas – that is not the America I believe in.”
Huey said that Hahn has mischaracterized his stance on Medicare. He said he would fight to keep promises made by the government intact and that nobody under 55 would be impacted by its restructuring.
“She has had at least six direct mail pieces saying I am going to take Medicare away from seniors,” Huey said. “What I said is you’ve got to save Medicare for seniors, because that has been a promise and pledge made to them and its something they rely upon. I will fight any effort that would do away with Medicare for seniors. At the same time, to save Medicare for seniors, as well as for young people, you’ve got to make some big changes.”
Hahn doesn’t buy it.
“Yes, but he’s willing to break promises to those 55 and younger – those people have been paying into the system for 30 years,” she said. “They didn’t just start. So you are breaking promises, and there are other ways to solve the problem without going after Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. I think if we just rolled back the tax cuts for the millionaires and billionaires we’d see a significant amount of revenue. And if corporations paid their fair share of taxes, we’d see more money coming in. There are other ways to balance this budget without going after seniors…Everybody wants to cut spending. Everybody wants to bring the deficit down, and so do I. But it’s how you do that – people need to understand what is at stake here.”
If campaign finance statements are any indication, the race is likely to be tighter than most recent elections in the largely Democratic district. Hahn has raised a total of nearly $1.1 million while Huey has raised $840,000 (of which $695,000 are loans he personally made to his campaign). The two candidates will engage in the only debate of the campaign on Thursday morning on radio station KPPC’s “Airtalk” show hosted by Larry Mantle. The debate begins at 10:30 a.m. on 89.3 FM. ER
