Brownley faces 3 challengers amid tough political environment

May 09--In the first election in Ventura County's highly competitive 26th Congressional District two years ago, the political stars aligned for Rep. Julia Brownley.

After the presumed Democratic favorite, county Supervisor Steve Bennett, unexpectedly dropped out of the race, Brownley -- who was about to be termed out of her Assembly seat -- got in at the 11th hour to become a candidate to represent in the U.S. House of Representatives a portion of the area she represented in the Legislature.

She survived a tough primary in the newly formed district that included three other Democrats and an independent, Supervisor Linda Parks. After that, things fell nicely into place. Voter turnout in a presidential election year was high, and Brownley benefited from the fact that Democrat Barack Obama carried the district by more than 10 percentage points.

Brownley won by a little more than 5 percentage points and became the first Democrat in 70 years to represent the heart of Ventura County in the House.

Brownley, of Westlake Village, now faces re-election in a district that remains very competitive, in a year in which voter turnout is expected to be significantly smaller and on a ballot that does not include a presidential race at the top of the ticket.

Perhaps sensing that the freshman Democrat would be vulnerable in such a political environment, Republican Assemblyman Jeff Gorell, of Camarillo, decided to pass up a likely shoo-in re-election to challenge Brownley.

This time, Brownley's concerns in the primary would appear to be negligible. Not only is she the incumbent, but she is also the only Democrat on a ballot that includes Republicans Gorell and businessman Rafael Dagnesses, of the Santa Rosa Valley, and independent law professor Douglas Kmiec, of Malibu.

Given their respective statures as the county's highest-ranking Democratic and Republican elected officials, as well as their substantial campaign-finance advantages, Brownley and Gorell are the clear favorites to finish first and second -- in one order or the other -- on June 3 and thus advance to a showdown in November.

They have competition, however, and the voters must first have their say.

Dagnesses, a first-time candidate for any elected office, is running as an outsider. He holds up his rags-to-riches immigrant story and personal background to assert he is the kind of common-sense, average citizen who could change the dynamics in Washington.

"What separates me in a huge way is my background," he said. "First and foremost, I'm not a career politician, which both of them definitely are. They are completely tied into the system. I'm just a regular guy."

Kmiec, a former U.S. Justice Department official under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and a former U.S. ambassador to Malta under President Barack Obama, is proudly running a shoestring campaign focused largely on what he sees as the need to counteract the corrupting influence of money in political campaigns.

"I am running so the people of the 26th District can raise their voice through me to tell the Supreme Court of the United States, with respect and complete confidence in the actual text of the Constitution, that corporations are not people and money is not speech," he said.

The 26th District, which covers all of Ventura County except for most of the city of Simi Valley and a coastal strip that runs from the Santa Barbara County line to midtown Ventura, is one of biggest congressional battlegrounds in California. Voter registration in the district is closely split among Democrats (39.8 percent), Republicans (33.9 percent) and those with no party preference (20.9 percent).

Kmiec's protests notwithstanding, the campaign is expected to be among the most expensive in the nation, and total spending could approach or potentially exceed the $6 million in combined spending of the 2012 campaign.

Following are profiles of the four candidates:

Julia Brownley

Two years ago, Brownley, 61, was a relative newcomer to Ventura County, having represented most of Oxnard in the Assembly while a resident of Santa Monica. She moved to Oak Park as she launched her congressional campaign.

She has since immersed herself in the community -- buying a home in Westlake Village, returning nearly every weekend when Congress is in session, visiting businesses and health care clinics, and hosting round-table meetings with area leaders. In selecting her official ballot designation this year, Brownley spelled out what she considers her new identity: "Ventura County Congresswoman."

"My lens in Congress on anything that comes before me," she said, "is that if this is good for Ventura County, it's good for me."

As examples, she points to her work on the Veterans Committee, which Brownley calls "a small oasis in a sea of dysfunction" in the House.

She hosted a subcommittee hearing in Ventura County this year to explore problems in delivering mental health services to area veterans. After determining the wait time to receive services was 44 days, when the standard is supposed to be 14 days, Brownley said the Department of Veterans Affairs has since "made some progress."

Brownley notes that her staff has assisted Ventura County veterans in obtaining more than $2 million in benefits they were owed but had not received.

While in the Legislature, Brownley represented one of the most liberal districts in California. She asserts that her record in Congress has been responsive to her more moderate constituency in Ventura County. She notes that she was among a minority of Democrats to support bills seeking to delay the tax penalties included in the Affordable Care Act, to allow those with noncompliant existing private insurance policies to keep them, and to approve a Farm Bill that included what she considered to be excessive cuts in food assistance for the poor.

Brownley said she objected to the proposed cutbacks but voted for the bill because of what she saw as its importance to county agriculture.

"I made a firm commitment to farmers that I am here to support them," she said.

Brownley knows that she and all Democratic candidates this year will be called upon to defend the Affordable Care Act in the face of continuing Republican calls for repeal.

She says she sees her role if re-elected to be a "pragmatic problem-solver" who will work to improve the historic health insurance reform law. "I honestly don't think my constituents support a flat-out repeal," she said. "For the first time, many, many people who have not had access to insurance now have it, and that's a positive thing."

On other high-profile issues, Brownley says that if given the chance, she would vote for the comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate more than a year ago. "I talk to farmers and ranchers in Ventura County all the time who are so frustrated that (House Speaker) John Boehner will not allow it to move forward."

Brownley said she would also vote to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, as proposed.

Rafael Dagnesses

Sitting in his real estate office in Simi Valley, one decorated with Marine Corps memorabilia, Rafael Dagnesses tells a reporter that "by all statistical parameters, I shouldn't even be here."

His father was a soldier in Fidel Castro's revolutionary army, but became critical of the Castro regime after it came to power in Cuba. For that, he was dispatched to a forced labor camp. He was fortunate, however, to get a rare ticket out of the country, and his family came to the United States as refugees when Dagnesses was 6.

They settled in Los Angeles. Dagnesses learned English by watching cartoons on television.

Growing up, he said: "There was not a night the LAPD helicopters' lights didn't shine in my bedroom. There were shootings in my backyard."

Dagnesses' ticket out was the Marine Corps, which he joined at 17. After his discharge from active duty, he enrolled in the Los Angeles Police Academy, then spent several years as an officer patrolling the same tough neighborhoods in which he was raised.

Dagnesses, 49, left the force to launch a business career. Today, he is owner of Quantum Realtors, a firm with multiple offices in Southern California, and last year was named one of the nation's 10 top-producing agents by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.

"I've never gotten anything for free," he says. "Everything has always been a struggle and a fight -- just like this campaign."

Dagnesses said he's learned a great deal about politics since announcing his candidacy, and he doesn't like what he's seen. He believes the system is stacked in favor of insiders of both parties.

Dagnesses believes the mentality of professional politicians is what feeds today's dysfunction in Congress.

"It's always the same people, sometimes just pretending to fight," he said. "If you have pragmatic, real-world people on both sides, they're going to go in and negotiate and talk."

Dagnesses has signed a pledged -- and even had it notarized -- that if elected, he will serve no more than eight years.

Dagnesses is the most conservative candidate in the race, particularly on the issue of immigration reform. He is opposed to any approach that would provide what he calls "amnesty" to people now living in the country illegally. His approach to immigration reform would be to create "a real secure border, with a real wall, and with technology backing up that wall."

As for the Affordable Care Act, Dagnesses said it "needs to be repealed, period. Not fixed."

He believes the health care reform designed to expand insurance coverage to the estimated 20 percent of Americans who are uninsured has adversely affected the 80 percent who had insurance. As for the uninsured, he believes they do have access to care.

"No one in America," he said, "gets turned away from medical care."

Jeff Gorell

Gorell, 43, has been involved in state Republican politics since going to work for former Gov. Pete Wilson right out of college. Over the years, he has seen the state party steadily lose influence and market share among the electorate, to the point where the percentage of registered voters in California who align with the GOP is now below 30 percent.

The road back, he believes, is to demonstrate to Californians that Republicans have the capacity to govern.

As a minority party Assembly member, Gorell has made it a point to maintain a relationship with Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and his administration -- something, he says, for which he has "received a lot of pushback" from some of his GOP colleagues.

"Do we want people who go to war, or people who show responsibility and leadership to govern?" he asked. "We have to show that we're capable of governance."

In the Assembly last year, Gorell broke from the party-line on a couple of high-profile issues by supporting a new law that allows individuals living here illegally to obtain limited-purpose driver's licenses and also voting in favor of a new law, opposed by the National Rifle Association, that phases in a ban on the use of lead ammunition in hunting.

He has also taken a lead role in advocating Republican support for immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for those living here illegally. He adopted that position after the GOP suffered election losses in 2008, and says his "epiphany" came after hearing GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney call for the "self-deportation" of those living in the country illegally.

Gorell says his position is consistent with Republican principles, as it acknowledges "opportunity, inclusiveness and entrepreneurship" and helps to keep families together and protect public safety.

Despite the urging of Gorell and several other California Republicans, the GOP-led House has not taken up the issue. Although the Senate has approved a comprehensive immigration reform bill that Obama has said he would sign, Gorell said he doesn't believe "there's any one place you can place blame."

The reason, he said, is that some House Republicans distrust Obama to implement any law they might pass.

Gorell said he does not oppose "in principle" an increase in the federal minimum wage, but voted against the bill last year that raised the minimum wage in California. He said he was concerned about automatic cost-of-living increases. However, the final version of the bill he voted against did not contain a provision for future automatic increases.

As for the Affordable Care Act, Gorell says, "If given an opportunity to repeal it, I would do so."

He believes the health insurance reform law came into being because elected officials from both parties "failed to address all the problems" of the existing system. He said he hopes to become part of a process "to identify real reforms that address those issues. I wouldn't just vote no and walk away."

Gorell is a commander in the Navy Reserve who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan.

Douglas Kmiec

Until taking out papers to become an independent candidate for Congress earlier this year, Kmiec had been a lifelong Republican. He served in the Justice Department, mostly under President George H.W. Bush, where he held the position commonly called "the attorney general's lawyer."

But during the past few years as a Republican, Kmiec's relationship with his party has been rocky. He alienated many in the party, especially his conservative Catholic colleagues in 2008, when he publicly endorsed Barack Obama over John McCain.

He did so despite Obama's position to support a woman's ability to choose to have an abortion. But he explained that, taken as a whole, he believed Obama had superior positions on other issues important to Catholic principles, such as his anti-war stance on Iraq and his support for social programs to serve the poor.

"We ought to be able as voters capable of making a judgment that someone at a time is offering a better package," he said.

As a noted Catholic theologian in the practice of law and politics -- Kmiec taught law at <org>Notre Dame before later joining the law school faculty at Pepperdine University -- the endorsement drew much attention and, from some quarters, scorn.

In response, Kmiec wrote a book, "Can a Catholic Support Him? Asking the Big Questions About Barack Obama," that drew considerable attention during the campaign. He was invited to visit with Obama in Chicago, and the two developed a mutual respect. Obama later appointed him ambassador to Malta.

As a person of faith, Kmiec, 62, says that while he believes in concept of separation of church and state, it is both possible and desirable to incorporate faith into the public square.

"Religion and politics," he says, "need to have a conversation."

A constitutional scholar, Kmiec was moved to run for Congress because of his grave concerns about the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which held that corporations and unions have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns. He believes the decision wrongly interpreted the Constitution and has disastrous implications for American democracy.

"Our system has basically been put on the block for sale," he said.

Out of personal protest and a sense of principle, Kmiec is refusing to accept corporate and political action committee contributions to his campaign. As a result, he finds himself a huge underdog in this campaign.

That role is compounded by the fact that he lives in Malibu, outside of the district, which is allowed. He says he chose to run in 26th District because he considers Ventura County his closest community of interest, a place where he visits, shops and socializes regularly.

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