HEADLINE!

April 9, 2018

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Headline!

I see that you grabbed the headline yesterday in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times California section. The story… not quite what you might have wished. Your Republican challenger, Scott Baugh, an old friend, was a former partner-in-crime (with your wife, it seems, not exactly yourself)—to recruit a “decoy candidate to split the Democratic vote” in order to help Baugh get elected to the State Assembly. Now he’s looking to unseat you.

At the very least, Baugh will purloin a significant number of votes from Republicans who are disenchanted for a variety of reasons by your long occupation of your congressional seat. I can hardly blame them for seeing you as no more than a “dues-paying incumbent.” From the Democratic point of view, I worry that the number of candidates on our side will split the vote and leave you two Republicans to fight it out in November. I have been adding my voice to those attempting to narrow the Democratic field.

There’s one point in the LA Times story that I can personally relate to: you were described as being “frequently unresponsive” to colleagues reaching out for help on policy. To which I can only say that I’m glad I’m not the only one. As I wrote the other day, I have received not one single response to the now more than 250 letters I have mailed to your Huntington Beach office. Admittedly, I’m a Democrat; but I’m also a concerned constitutent.

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.