Rep. Bob Filner (D) Elected 1992, 7th term
Born:	Sept. 4, 1942, Pittsburgh, PA
Home:	San Diego
Education:	Cornell U., B.A. 1963, Ph.D. 1973, U. of DE, M.A. 1969
Religion:	Jewish
Marital Status:	married (Jane Merrill)
Elected  Office:	San Diego Schl. Bd., 1979-83, Pres., 1982-83; San Diego City Cncl., 1987-92, Dpty. Mayor, 1991.
Professional Career:	Prof., San Diego St. U., 1970-92; Legis. Asst., U.S. Sen. Hubert Humphrey, 1974; Legis. Asst., U.S. Rep. Don Fraser, 1975.
DC Office	2428 RHOB20515, 202-225-8045; Fax: 202-225-9073; Web site: www.house.gov/filner
State Offices	Chula Vista, 619-422-5963; Imperial, 760-355-8800.
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San Diego, at one corner of the continental United States, not so long ago a small Navy town known for its good harbor and splendid weather, is now a major metropolis, a city of 1.26 million people and the center of a metro area of 2.93 million. It is also, to its sometime discomfort, one of the largest cities anywhere directly on an international border and between countries with strikingly different economic conditions, political systems and cultural traditions. On a daily basis, agents for the Border Patrol play a cat-and-mouse game with illegal immigrants trying to make the crossing. Nearly 70,000 were apprehended in a roughly 12-month period in 2004, but perhaps three times as many crossed the border in this area without being captured.

This is the busiest border crossing in the world, but most of San Diego seems to look away, toward the ocean. Tijuana looks to the United States, to the lower-income part of San Diego--the industrial zone on brown hills in Otay Mesa and San Ysidro, the industrial suburbs of Chula Vista and National City and the grid streets south of downtown and behind the harbor in San Diego itself. Many children from Mexico cross the border daily to attend public and private schools. Latinos are scattered in various parts of the city, in the southern corridor and in Encanto and Chollas Park in the east. Oddly, there is not much evidence of Mexican style in San Diego--less even than in Los Angeles, as if the border city was insisting on its Yanqui origins, just as San Diego's civic leaders bridled at the idea of a bi-national airport on the border, even though their single-runway airport is unable to meet demand and has major barriers to growth. Even the city's favorite symbol, the red Tijuana Trolley that takes tourists from downtown to the San Ysidro-Tijuana border station, is as resolutely Yanqui as Main Street in Disneyland.

The 51st Congressional District of California covers all of California's border with Mexico, including the southeast corner of San Diego, National City and Chula Vista on San Diego Bay, and San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, which are part of the city of San Diego, connected to the rest by lines running down the harbor. The 51st also extends east to the Arizona border to include all of Imperial County, with its string of farms and towns running south from the Salton Sea to Mexicali, Mexico. The water comes from the Colorado River through the All-American Canal; the Salton Sea was created when the canal burst in 1905 and water flowed into the lowest part of the desert. A new state law imposes a tax on water use in San Diego to pay for restoration of the sea. With farm land being turned into moderately priced subdivisions, rapidly growing Imperial County in 2000 had 142,000 people, 72% Hispanic; Mexicali has 790,000. District-wide, 73% of the people live in San Diego, National City and Chula Vista, 19% in Imperial County and only 8% in the rest. Minorities make up 80% of the population: 53% Hispanic, 12% Asian (mainly Filipino) and 9% black. This was created to be a solidly Democratic district, but may be becoming less so: Al Gore won 57% of the vote here, but John Kerry won only 53%.

The congressman from the 51st District is Bob Filner, a Democrat first elected in 1992. Filner grew up in New York City and was a Freedom Rider in 1961, imprisoned for two months in Mississippi. He earned a Ph.D. at Cornell, taught history at San Diego State and directed the Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies; he took time off to work on Senator Hubert Humphrey's staff in the 1970s, was elected to the San Diego school board in 1979 and to the city council in 1987. The 1992 redistricting created a new Democratic seat in San Diego County, and Filner decided to run. He was strongly backed by local activists although he had two better-known rivals. Filner won with 26%, to 23% for Waddie Deddeh, state senator and assemblyman since 1966; 20% for Jim Bates, four-term congressman defeated in 1990 after being disciplined for sexual harassment; and 19% for Juan Carlos Vargas.

Filner is politically savvy, with some original ideas about policy, aggressive in articulating his views, and has one of the most liberal voting records in the House. As the number two Democrat on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Filner has become a vocal advocate of veterans' rights, a popular cause in a district of many military retirees. He wants to pay benefits to merchant mariners who served during World War II and often encountered hazardous conditions. In 1998, Filner was one of only five House members to vote against both parties' impeachment inquiries. In July 2001, he forced a House vote on a Social Security issue, to prohibit spending to implement the final report of Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security which proposed various forms of individual investment accounts; the vote was almost entirely on party lines. He voted against the use of force in Iraq; in September 2002, in a joint appearance on C-SPAN, Filner and Joe Wilson of South Carolina engaged in a heated argument after Filner stated that the U.S. had supplied biological and chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein in the past. Wilson angrily accused Filner of being "viscerally anti-American." Filner, citing his experience as a Freedom Rider, later said, "I've been beaten up and thrown in jail by better people than Joe Wilson." In 2004, he was the only member of the California delegation not to sign a letter seeking a waiver from a Clean Air Act provision requiring the state to add oxygenates to fuel; while the delegation felt that this would increase fuel costs, Filner saw an opportunity for ethanol made from sugar cane grown in Imperial County. He supported truckers blockading the border because of long waits they were facing, but he opposed an expansion of the border station at San Ysidro because he feared that I-5 construction would split the community geographically. He opposed the planned triple-fencing project at the westernmost stretch of the border because of environmental concerns.

In the 1996 primary, Filner was again opposed by Juan Carlos Vargas, by then on the San Diego Council. Filner won, but by just 55%-45%. The 2001 redistricting plan removed heavily Latino parts of San Diego but the addition of Imperial County resulted in an increase in Hispanic percentage from 51% to 53%. In the 2002 primary, Filner was challenged by Danny Ramirez, an Imperial County businessman. Filner won 70%-30%. In Imperial County, which cast one-quarter of the vote, Ramirez led 60%-40%. But Filner won 70%-30% in San Diego County. Filner won the general election 58%-39%. Early in 2005, Vargas, who was term-limited in the Assembly, said he was planning to challenge Filner for a third time. Although he would have an ethnic advantage, Imperial County Hispanics have known little of Vargas, and Filner may benefit from his constituent work there.

Committees

• Transportation & Infrastructure (9th of 34 D): Aviation; Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation (RMM); Railroads.
• Veterans' Affairs (2d of 12 D): Health.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	95	93	100	73	33	10	22	9	0	15	--
2003	100	--	100	95	--	24	17	8	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	92%	--	0%		73%	--	26%
Social	92%	--	0%		88%	--	0%
Foreign	94%	--	0%		96%	--	3%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. DC School Vouchers N 6. Ban Human Cloning N		7. Restrict Gun Liability N  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion N  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War N 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds Y 12. Intelligence Reorg. *

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Bob Filner (D)	111,441	62%	$657,867
	Michael Giorgino (R)	63,526	35%	$111,778
	Other	5,912	3%
2004 primary	Bob Filner (D)	33,046	77%
	Daniel Ramirez (D)	10,074	23%
2002 general	Bob Filner (D)	59,541	58%	$905,137
	Maria Garcia (R)	40,430	39%	$113,569
	Other	2,816	3%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (68%); 1998 (99%); 1996 (62%); 1994 (57%); 1992 (57%)

2004 Presidential Vote Kerry (D) 100,062 (53%) Bush (R) 85,762 (46%)

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 85,561 (57%) Bush (R) 61,008 (41%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Fifty-First District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D + 7
• District Size: 4,896 square miles
• Population in 2000: 639,087; 95.6% urban; 4.4% rural
• Median Household Income: $39,243; 16.3% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 23.5% blue collar; 54.7% white collar; 21.8% gray collar; 12.2% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 21.3% White, 9.4% Black, 12.4% Asian, 0.5% Amer. Indian, 0.6% Hawaiian, 2.4% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 53.3% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 4.2% German, 3.3% Irish, 2.9% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.