Bakersfield, California
RICH RODRIGUEZ strides into the foyer of the Bakersfield Holiday Inn Select like a man used to being noticed. His white shirt is starched; his cuffed suit pants — made of that limp, rich-guy material that looks comfortable enough to be pajamas — hang perfectly, breaking ever so slightly across the top of a pair of polished brown loafers.
Despite Rodriguez’s two-man entourage, no one looks his way. As the longtime (20-plus years) anchor at KFSN, the ABC affiliate in Fresno, Rodriguez is known to 70 percent of the residents of the rural California district he hopes to represent in the 107th Congress. But many of the 30 percent who don’t know him live here in Kern County, the southernmost portion of the district. Rodriguez stops and turns to an aide.
“Should I be wearing my coat?” he asks campaign manager Joe Galli.
“I was just thinking about that,” says Galli, flipping his boss the keys to the oversized white pick-up he’s just parked across the street. “It’s probably a good idea.”
Galli heads to the bar, thinking out loud. “It’ll be interesting to see what kind of reception he gets here,” he says, taking a swig of his Coors Light. “It’s his first Hispanic event.” If Rodriguez is to prevail on November 7, he needs to make inroads with two groups: Hispanics and Kern County voters.
The “event” is the Kern County Youth Mariachi Foundation Annual Dinner. That this area has such a group is telling. The Twentieth District includes Kings County and parts of Fresno, Tulare, and Kern counties; oddly shaped, it was drawn by Democrats in the early ’90s to maximize the Hispanic voting population. Hispanics make up 55 percent of the residents of the district and 35 percent of the voters. If Rodriguez is successful in his challenge of five-term incumbent Cal Dooley, a rising New Democrat star, he will be the first Hispanic Republican to represent California in Congress.
A recent poll suggests Rodriguez has a decent chance of earning that distinction. Taken in late September by the Fresno Bee, it shows Rodriguez with a 42 percent to 38 percent lead over Dooley.
One reason for the incumbent’s woes is that the economic boom has bypassed this district. While national unemployment has hovered around 4 percent for much of the economic expansion, the local figure is 16 percent. Partly as a result, the California Farm Bureau endorsed political neophyte Rodriguez. The Farm Bureau’s backing, announced in late August, has been a major boost in one of the top-producing agricultural districts in the country. (Rodriguez even calls his campaign committee “Friends & Farmers for Rich Rodriguez.”)
In Dooley’s previous races, the Farm Bureau remained neutral. His endorsement this year by the less influential United Farm Workers, founded in the district by Cesar Chavez, is little consolation. Asked about the Farm Bureau’s nod to his opponent, Dooley shared his sour grapes. “What the Farm Bureau wants is a puppet and a yes man for every issue that they come across.” The only reason the Farm Bureau favors Rodriguez, Dooley said, is Dooley’s opposition to a guest worker bill that the bureau and Rodriguez support.
But Jim Verboon, a Kern County walnut farmer and Farm Bureau board member who was present when the board voted unanimously to endorse Rodriguez, listed differences on three other issues of importance — water, the Endangered Species Act, and the Antiquities Act. When told that Dooley claims the guest worker bill cost him the endorsement, Verboon scoffs. “To tell you the truth, that never really came up in the discussions,” he said. “And we talked about [the endorsement] for 30-45 minutes.”
The race is significant for what it portends about politics in California and the nation. In late August, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that California had become “majority minority,” with Hispanics the largest non-white ethnic minority. The trend is the same in the nation as a whole, though most of the country is decades away from the color mix of the Golden State.
California Republicans have struggled mightily to win the favor of the rapidly growing Latino population, and a Rodriguez victory would help build a relationship. Latino values are conservative, Republicans argue, and Rodriguez would be an ideal emissary to a critical constituency. It’s a role he would welcome.
“You have to remember who you must represent first, and that’s your district,” says Rodriguez. “But I’ve got pretty broad shoulders.”
But congressional Republicans have a more immediate concern than long-term demographic trends: A Rodriguez victory will help them keep the House. To that end, the National Republican Congressional Committee is prepared to spend nearly $ 1 million on the Rodriguez race, and has already committed some $ 600,000 on ads. NRCC officials hope to offset Dooley’s hard-money advantage, which was nearly three to one, according to the most recent FEC reports.
Some of the ads will be in Spanish, though the NRCC and the Rodriguez campaign both deny targeting Hispanic voters. (Rodriguez, ironically, isn’t fluent in Spanish.) They’re also courting independents. Senator John McCain last week taped an NRCC-sponsored radio ad for Rodriguez, designed to appeal to voters who might otherwise gravitate toward the conservative Democrat. Said Tom Davis, chairman of the NRCC, “Rich Rodriguez has the two most important elements of a winning challenger campaign — he has a high positive name ID and he connects with like-minded Democrats, independents, and Republicans alike.”
Back at the Mariachi Foundation dinner, Rodriguez could have gone without the jacket he fetched from his truck. With it, he is overdressed in a crowd of spruced-up farmers, the men mostly sporting denim shirts and bolo ties, the women in formal dresses or evening gowns. Many of the men have stubborn dirt underneath their fingernails. The women wear lots of make-up. The children are in their Sunday best.
Gil Garcia, president of the Kern County Youth Mariachi Foundation, welcomes Rodriguez to the gathering. Several men greet Garcia, who introduces them to Rodriguez. They pay him little attention.
The air in the lobby is thick with perfume, and a mariachi band plays loudly at the entrance to the dinner. Mostly high school kids, the musicians are remarkably accomplished. Families — of the intact, traditional kind — file past the band into the large hall.
The dinner lasts forever. The emcee — a local celebrity, a newsman — is constantly interrupted by an emotional Garcia. Together, they recognize the kids, the parents, the board members, the insurance agent, the costume designer, the donors, the mayor of Fresno, each other. Garcia introduces Rodriguez as a candidate for Congress. He stands and waves and is greeted with polite applause.
But several in the audience are fierce Rodriguez loyalists, and they surround him following the dinner. Most prefer to work behind the scenes on the campaign and are reluctant to talk on the record. They say they fear retribution from a reelected Dooley, but speak optimistically of an upset.
“We’re going to send him a message,” says one prominent Hispanic activist who insists that his support has nothing to do with ethnicity. But his next sentence reveals the complexity of racial politics here.
“Dooley has neglected us. He has not given us one Latino student at the military academies,” he says with disgust, referring to the power members of Congress have to sponsor constituents for admission to the U.S. military academies. “What bill or issue has he brought on behalf of the Latino community?”
The man ticks off a list of grievances, growing more animated with each. “We’re going to force Dooley to deal with the Hispanic community. We’re going to endorse and help those who help our community.”
He finishes, though, where he started. “It’s not because [Rich] is Hispanic. It’s because of jobs. And Rich is promising to help.”
Stephen F. Hayes is a 2000 Phillips Foundation journalism fellow.
