California: Seventeenth District

Rep. Sam Farr (D)

Sam Farr (D) Elected June 1993, 7th full term up
Born:	07-04-1941, San Francisco
Home:	Carmel
Education:	Willamette U., B.S. 1963
Religion:	Episcopalian
Marital Status:	married (Shary)
Elected  Office:	Monterey Cnty. Bd. of Supervisors, 1975–80, Chmn., 1979; CA Assembly, 1980–93.
Professional Career:	Peace Corps, Colombia, 1963–65; Staff, CA Assembly, 1965–75.
DC Office	1221 LHOB, 20515 202-225-2861 Fax: 202-225-6791 Website: www.farr.house.gov
State Offices	Salinas:831-424-2229; Santa Cruz:831-429-1976;
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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 (the area is often referred to as “the salad bowl of the world”). 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 (the last sardines were canned in 1964) have generated a new industry: Once described by Steinbeck as “a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, nostalgia, a dream,” Cannery Row now is refurbished with upscale shops and hotels. The magnificent Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of California’s top tourist destinations; the National Marine Sanctuary here holds more than 400 shipwrecks and ditched aircraft. The Monterey Bay area calls itself the world’s language learning capital, with the Defense Language Institute, 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 lush 17-Mile Drive along the Pacific Coast Highway, 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.

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 gap between rich and poor in Monterey County has widened: 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. 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 District 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, Leon Panetta resigned from the House to become Office of Management and Budget director, and Farr ran for his seat. 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 transferring the lands to local governments and 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, and Farr helped to pass in 2004 the California Missions Preservation Act; 5 of those 21 missions are in his district. After the local spinach crop in 2006 was damaged by an E-coli outbreak, Farr held a press conference to urge constituents to “go Popeye” and eat spinach. He pushed for $25 million to aid producers, a provision that generated controversy after it was added to the emergency war spending bill; House and Senate conferees stripped it from the bill in April 2007.  “It’s easy to make fun of spinach,” Farr said in defense of the subsidy. “But if we had eaten more of it, we would be a stronger society.”

An advocate of post-conflict reconstruction, Farr helped to set up the Center for Stabilization and Reconstruction at Monterey’s Naval Postgraduate School. As co-chair of the Oceans Caucus, he has pushed a major proposal to overhaul ocean management, with national and regional governance; he helped to write the 2006 law revising rules for offshore fisheries. He also filed a bill to encourage research on sea otters.

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 Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Committees

• Appropriations (19th of 37 D)
  Military Construction, Veterans Affairs & Related Agencies; Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA & Related Agencies; Homeland Security.

Presidential Vote

District Demographics (More Info)

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D +17
• Area size: 5,386 square miles
• Urban Population: 90.0%
• Rural Population: 10.0%
• Population 2000: 639,088
• Population 2005 (est): 642,703
• Median Income: $49,234
• Poverty Status: 13.3%
• Military Veterans: 10.4%
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 46.3% White; 2.6% Black; 4.8% Asian; 0.4% Native Am.; 0.3% Hawaiian; 2.5% Two+ races; 0.3% Other; 42.9% Hispanic Origin;
• Ancestry: 7.6% German%; 6.3% English%; 6.3% Irish%;
• Occupation: Blue collar 19.7%; White collar 55.4%; Gray collar 24.9%;