|
|
|
MODESTO - Somewhere on Route 99 between Stockton and Modesto, a driver cruising past a row of brightly lit chain motels Friday was told that Dick Monteith wants to take away a woman's right to choose -- "even if the mother's life is in danger," said the female voice on the radio. A few minutes later, on another frequency, a male voice warned that Dennis Cardoza supports abortion "even as a form of birth control."
Fed by millions of dollars in campaign contributions, political advertisements have flooded airwaves in the 18th Congressional District, one of a handful that could decide the balance of power in Congress. Last weekend brought the two campaigns' total contributions near the $2.5-million mark.
Supporters of Democrat Dennis Cardoza, a third-term assemblyman from Merced, have given his campaign $1.47 million. Republican Dick Monteith, who has represented Modesto in the state senate since 1994, has pulled in $970,000. Those numbers don't include political parties' "soft money" that has funded "issues advertising," or "independent expenditures'' by interest groups that aren't affiliated with either candidate.
Only in Santa Barbara have congressional candidates rivaled the two in funding. There, farming and real-estate millionaire Beth Rogers has loaned her own campaign more than $720,000 in an attempt to unseat incumbent Democrat Lois Capps, also a heavy spender.
The weekend saw luminaries from both parties supporting their candidates in the 18th district, which runs from Stockton in the north, through Stanislaus and Merced counties, and into a corner of Fresno County.
Independent analysts say the race will be one of the closest in the US House, where Democrats need a net gain of six seats to wrest control from the GOP majority. The most recent poll taken by the Los Angeles Times put Cardoza ahead by a scant two points.
The two candidates have also created hot contests -- and big-money campaigns -- for the seats they're leaving. Monteith's seat in the 12th Senate district, which includes Merced County and San Benito counties, and parts of Stanislaus and Monterey counties, is one of 20 Senate seats open this year.
But it has drawn 96 percent of the money the two state parties have given to Senate candidates.
It has drawn even more cash than the congressional race. Former assemblyman Rusty Areias, who narrowly lost a state senate bid in 1996, has received and spent more than $3.9 million for his campaign. His Republican opponent, Jeff Denham, has received more than $2.5 million.
Rob Stutzman, a senior campaign consultant to the state Republican Party, said the stakes in both races are upped because they are the state's most competitive.
"Nowhere else in the state is like this," he said, "There's been a concentrated effort here for over a year."
Democrats agree.
Since mid-October, incumbents with safe seats in California, Illinois, Texas and other states have sent $1,000 contributions to the two candidates here. Contributions from national groups, like the American Federation of Teachers and the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund, often exceed $5,000. The Modesto Bee reported last week that Cardoza and Monteith had received about 40 percent of their total contributions from out of state.
The 18th District has been in the national spotlight since June 2001, when veteran House Democrat Gary Condit of Ceres became enmeshed in the investigation into the disappearance of Chandra Levy, a Modesto native who worked in Condit's Washington office.
The money has been flowing steadily since Condit lost the Democratic primary to Cardoza in March. In the last month, donors have poured in about $10,000 a day.
In September, Monteith spent $380,000 on airtime and other media expenses, elections filings show. Cardoza's records are less detailed, but four filings last month show that in early October, he paid at least $120,000 for airtime. Some residents here say they've been bombarded for weeks with the radio and television spots.
"It's nuts," said Kaye Hendrix, a Modesto resident. "This is more than I've ever seen before."
Campaign managers for both campaigns said increased funding this year has let them put more staffers on the ground and on the telephone. Registration drives in front of grocery stores were unusually numerous, said residents of Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties, half of whose populations live in the 18th District.
In Merced County, which lies entirely in both the 18th Congressional district and the 12th Senate district, Republicans registered more than 10,000 voters in two years, bringing their total to 39,672. Democratic registration has grown to 46,879, up 4,300 from the last election.
Modesto resident Robyn Williams, a registered Republican, said the local GOP had called her more than once in the last month to remind her to vote. Amy Vizzolini, her friend and a registered Democrat, said her local party had pressured her just as heavily.
"Starting this weekend, every single staff member is GOTV," said Cardoza's campaign manager Steve Haro, referring to get-out-the-vote drives.
Since summer, the Monteith campaign has welcomed the GOP top brass, starting with President Bush, Vice President Cheney, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Gale Norton, the Secretary of the Interior. On Saturday GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon and the party's ticket of statewide candidates dropped in for a whistle-stop rally at the Modesto airport.
"Coming to Modesto with the ticket was very intentional because of the focus on the Monteith race," said Stutzman, the GOP consultant, as he watched the group reboard the Boeing 727 in the gathering dusk Saturday.
Senior congressional Democrats, including Senator Joseph Leiberman of Connecticut, the party's vice-presidential candidate from 2000, have appeared on behalf of Cardoza.
Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, the second-ranking Democrat in the US House, held a forum on women's issues with Cardoza and California first lady Sharon Davis in Stockton Friday evening. As luminaries from both parties have been telling district residents since summer, Pelosi told the 20 Democrats in the Viva La Italiana restaurant that the 18th District would be crucial to the balance of the House.
Just before US Secret Service agents whisked her into a waiting sport-utility vehicle with tinted windows, she explained her role in the tight Cardoza race to a reporter: "If it's a question of making the difference to help them win, to raise money, you do that."