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Last Updated June 21, 2005
The Central Valley of California is a miraculous man-made landscape, an outdoor factory stretching as far as the eye can see. Nature created the vast flatlands, rimmed by mountains rising surreally in the distant haze. But man in the last century has disciplined the land with a remorseless mile-square grid of roads, and the sluggish-flowing California Aqueduct and dozens of arrow-straight canals; pipes fitted with valves and gauges to pump water and fertilizer and pesticides to the fields in measured quantities give an air of industrial precision. The crops grow in carefully spaced rows, filling the fields; the rich soil and the irrigated water are too precious to waste on decoration or flower gardens. Farming here has been a business, not a way of life; in the 19th century the land was not given to 160-acre homesteaders, but sold to thousands-of-acres capitalist enterprises. The Central Valley in recent years has become one of California's surprise boom areas, growing not just crops but people. Middle-income employees in the San Francisco Bay area drive east at the end of the day on I-580, past surreal windmills whirling on the bare hills of the Altamont pass, across the Westlands fields to modestly priced homes in Modesto, the town immortalized (when it was much smaller) in American Graffiti and made famous more recently as the home of Gary Condit and Scott Peterson. Warehouses and factories have sprung up on land that, for all its farming value, is cheaper than industrial land in the Bay Area, and some croplands have been given over to pasture, as subsidized water was cut off from cultivators of cotton, and water prices move slowly toward market levels far above those of government subsidy. The result is not stagnation but growth, and a more well-rounded economy; the Central Valley south of Sacramento grew 8% from 2000 to 2003 while the San Francisco Bay area grew only 0.8%. But there are costs. Traffic is a problem, air pollution on bad days approaches coastal metropolitan levels and the pace of life has become more hectic. The 18th Congressional District of California includes a large chunk of the Central Valley from Stockton, south to Modesto and through Merced County to the fringes of Fresno. The political tradition here had been Democratic: Democrats in Washington and Governor Pat Brown in California built the irrigation canals and authorized the water subsidies; Democrats owned the McClatchy newspapers, the predominant Valley chain; Democrats staffed the Bank of America, long the dominant financial force here; on the walls of insider law firms were signed pictures of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Pat Brown, not Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson. But the Central Valley is the part of California with the highest proportion of families and children, and there is a natural cultural conservatism here, shared by successful local politicians. In the 1980s and 1990s the Central Valley trended Republican, and even Latinos here are less heavily Democratic than in Los Angeles. The 18th District is still modestly Democratic, because of very careful redistricting. The old Central Valley district had voted 53% for George W. Bush in 2000. By removing much of Stanislaus County and adding a corridor along I-5 in San Joaquin County, including the central part of Stockton, the Bush 2000 vote dropped to 44%; in 2004 Bush carried the district 50%-49%. The congressman from the 18th District is Dennis Cardoza, a Democrat first elected in a 2002 contest that drew international attention because of the notoriety of his predecessor, Gary Condit. Cardoza grew up in Merced and Stanislaus Counties and graduated from the University of Maryland; he is, by the way, not of Latin American but of Portuguese descent (like Jim Costa of the adjacent 20th District, Devin Nunes of the 21st and Richard Pombo of the 11th, all in the Central Valley). In the mid-1980s Cardoza worked as an aide to Condit, then an assemblyman, assisted Condit's 1989 special election campaign and served on his Washington staff. In 1997 Cardoza was elected to the Assembly; he undoubtedly would have remained loyal to Condit had Chandra Levy, a Modesto resident who was working as an intern in the executive branch, not disappeared in Washington in April 2001. Her disappearance generated saturation media coverage; it was revealed that Condit had a relationship with her, though he steadfastly denied it was sexual in nature. In those pre-September 11 days, the Levy case suddenly became top news; Condit was harried by reporters and cameramen as he left his Adams Morgan apartment or walked from the Capitol to the Rayburn Building. For constituents, the case was a revelation. Condit had always portrayed himself as a family man, the son of a preacher; his wife was well known and beloved in the Modesto area. Now it appeared that Condit had been living another life in Washington, dating young women and acting decidedly unlike a family man. After September 11 Condit disappeared from the cable news networks, but the question remained whether he would seek reelection. Cardoza was careful not to criticize Condit or question his actions at a time when his conduct with Levy generated worldwide speculation. But national and local Democrats urged him to enter the contest because they feared that Condit could not survive a general election. Cardoza entered the race in October; Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer endorsed him, as did many members of the House delegation. To Condit, though, Cardoza's decision to challenge him was a betrayal. In the primary, Cardoza won 53%-39%. Condit led 48%-46% in his base of Stanislaus County, but Cardoza clobbered him in San Joaquin County, 60%-25%. The embittered Condit all but disappeared from the airwaves, but filed a libel suit against celebrity columnist Dominick Dunne, which was settled in March 2005 for cash and an apology. For Cardoza the election was not over. Republicans nominated state Senator Dick Monteith, whose seat included 73% of the congressional district; he claimed Cardoza was too liberal for an agriculture-oriented constituency. Cardoza allies responded by citing his business-oriented reputation in the Legislature. Cardoza tried to mollify Condit supporters, but Condit would not speak to him and predicted that Monteith would win in November. Monteith pledged to oppose "privatizing" Social Security, but Cardoza replied that Monteith had supported personal retirement accounts. In October, Condit's children released a letter that harshly criticized Cardoza and urged citizens to vote against him; Cardoza won anyway, 51%-43%. Stockton made the difference. Monteith led 49%-47% in Merced County and 48%-44% in Stanislaus County. But Cardoza led 67%-27% in San Joaquin County, a 10,000-vote margin that wiped out Monteith's 2,000-vote lead elsewhere. In the House, Cardoza cast a Condit-like independent and centrist voting record, and gravitated to the obvious issues of agriculture and resources. He cosponsored with Majority Whip Roy Blunt a bill to promote improved federal-state cooperation during farm disasters. He called for a foster care commission, an interest that he shares with Majority Leader Tom DeLay. He bucked environmentalists and worked with Resources Committee chairman Pombo on farmer-friendly revisions to the Endangered Species Act, including changes in designating critical habitat; perhaps not coincidentally, he no longer serves on the Resources Committee. In another signal that he had problems with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Cardoza sought but failed to win a seat on the Armed Services Committee. Instead, he joined International Relations. Cardoza won reelection handily. He helped on fundraising for other Blue Dog Democrats, and became their communications co-chairman in 2004.
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