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Last Updated June 21, 2005
The California coast around Monterey Bay is for many a working definition of paradise. This kernel of California, where Spanish and then Mexicans governed a virtually empty land and Californians set up their first state capital, still makes a fine living off the land and sea, as it has for 150 years. The locale for The Grapes of Wrath and many other John Steinbeck novels, the fields around Salinas supply much of the nation's lettuce and cauliflower. Nearby, the fields around Castroville supply almost all of its artichokes, and the vast greenhouses around Watsonville supply a goodly portion of its roses. The fishing fleet and the 18 now-closed canneries of Monterey are no longer a major industry, but they have generated a new industry: Cannery Row is refurbished with upscale shops and hotels, and the magnificent Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of California's top tourist destinations. The Monterey Bay area has become the nation's language learning capital, with the Defense Language Institute, AT&T Language Line Services and Cal State's Monterey Bay Center for Intensive Language and Culture on the site of Fort Ord, which was closed in 1994. There are other attractions on the Monterey peninsula: the Pebble Beach golf courses, Del Monte Lodge, and Carmel, whose restrictive laws--no house numbers, no door-to-door mail delivery, no live entertainment, no stop lights, no cutting trees without city council permission--reflect an effort to maintain the atmosphere of nearly a century ago, when it really was an artists' colony. But plans to give to public use the four miles of beachfront from Fort Ord have been stifled by bureaucracy and environmental cleanup. The 17th Congressional District of California includes all the coast of Monterey Bay and follows the stunning Big Sur coastline south along the steep slopes almost to William Randolph Hearst's castle, San Simeon, past some of the most beautiful scenery in America; to the north along Monterey Bay, it extends past Watsonville to Santa Cruz and the last boardwalk amusement park on the West Coast. The district extends inland, into sunny valleys sheltered from ocean mists, and covers some of the nation's richest farmland. In San Benito County is Hollister, where tens of thousands of motorcyclists assemble annually at an oval dirt racetrack for the Independence Rally. Most of the farm workers are Latino (mainly Mexican), and in the 1990s the district's Latino population rose from 31% to 43%--the largest increase in any Northern California district. The Census also showed that the gap between rich and poor in Monterey County widened in the 1990s: More than 2,000 homes were valued at more than $1 million, while the county ranked seventh statewide in the share of households below the poverty line; of course many of these people were living in much greater poverty in other countries a decade earlier. This area is a prime example of how the California coast has trended Democratic. Forty years ago this was a solidly Republican area, dominated politically by the landowners in Salinas and the townspeople who sympathize with them, plus retirees in Santa Cruz and the Monterey peninsula. But an influx of liberation-minded young people, attracted less by the economy than by the atmosphere, moved the coast to the left. In 2002, Santa Cruz officials in front of City Hall gave away medical marijuana in defiance of a law enforcement crackdown. The University of California branch at Santa Cruz is so liberal that it has changed the political balance of the whole county. As late as 1980, Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties were voting less Democratic than the nation. But since 1984 they have become steadily more Democratic than the nation, and each now exceeds the Democratic presidential vote by more than 10%. In 2004 John Kerry won by 66%-33% a district that was carried four times by Ronald Reagan. The congressman from the 17th is Sam Farr, a Democrat first elected in June 1993. A fifth-generation Californian, he grew up in Monterey County, where his father was a state senator for many years. Farr signed up for the Peace Corps after college, learned Spanish at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and served two years in Colombia. He was a California Assembly staffer for a decade, became a Monterey County supervisor in 1975, and was elected to the Assembly in 1980. There, he wrote one of the nation's strictest oil spill liability laws. In 1993 17th District Congressman Leon Panetta resigned to become Office of Management and Budget director, and Farr ran for the House. He entered the race as the overwhelming favorite, and in the all-party primary won 26% to beat two other Democrats who had 19% and 14%. But in the runoff, after the Clinton budget and tax increase had been introduced, he had trouble against Republican Bill McCampbell, whom Panetta had defeated 72%-24% seven months earlier. Farr won, but by just 52%-43%. In the House, Farr has a solidly liberal voting record. In voting against trade promotion authority, Farr cited the Clinton administration's failure to restrict imports of cut flowers from Colombia, which compete with a major local industry. On the Appropriations Committee, Farr has focused on two major local concerns: farming and military bases. He helped to negotiate the final agreement that conveyed the former Fort Ord to civilian hands, and he took the lead in refusing to permit the Navy to establish a practice bombing range near Big Sur. Working with Senator Patrick Leahy, he led a successful effort in 2003 to repeal a little-noted provision of an appropriations bill that would have allowed poultry and beef to be raised on non-organic food but still be labeled organic. George W. Bush signed his bill to add 55,000 acres to Big Sur wilderness area. Farr co-chaired the Oceans Caucus to improve oceans-related policymaking, including job protection in the fishing industry. Combining those two interests, he filed with Senator Richard Durbin a bill to prohibit cruise ships from dumping waste or other contaminants within a 12-mile coastal zone. He also filed a bill to encourage research on sea otters. Jumping the gun a bit, he circulated a paper that proposed turning Fort Hunter Liggett into part of a new national forest if it was closed in the 2005 base closing round; as it turned out, the facility was spared. He mocked Bush's Social Security plan as "a guaranteed lottery ticket." Farr was elected to a full term in 1994 against McCampbell by only 52%-44%. Since then California has moved toward the Democrats and he has been reelected easily. His ability to work well with diverse interests has made Farr an influential member on statewide issues; he has been a close ally of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
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