Golding out, Riggs in

The race for the Republican nod to oppose leftist Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer has changed dramatically this month. Shortly before I headed to California two weeks ago, moderate San Diego Mayor Susan Golding announced her surprise exodus from the three-candidate GOP primary Golding, considered a close ally of Repubican Gov. Pete Wilson, cited fundraising difficulties that made it impossible for her to compete effectively with State Treasurer Matt Fong and San Diego car-alarm magnate Darrell Issa.

But the June GOP primary will remain a three-candidate affair. Within days after Golding's exit, three-term Rep. Frank Riggs (R.-Calif.) astonished Golden State GOPers by announcing he would forgo reelection to run for the Senate. Hailing from the Northern California-based 1st District and little known in the more populous south (which casts far more votes in Republican primaries), the 47-year-old Riggs is nonetheless a feisty "Energizer Bunny" campaigner.

In 1990, the former policeman and Sonoma County deputy sheriff came out of nowhere to unseat four-term Democratic Rep. Doug Bosco. Unseated two years later by Democrat Dan Hamburg, Riggs avenged his loss by beating Hamburg in a '94 rematch. In 1996, he won with a relatively comfortable 50% of the vote in a nationally watched bout with Democrat Michela Alioto, granddaughter of onetime San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto, who got 43%. On issues, Riggs is a little harder to pin down than the conservative Issa or the more moderate Fong. One of only three House Republicans in 1991 to oppose Desert Storm, Riggs still occasionally wander off the conservative ranch, such as when he voted to increase the minimum wage last year. But overall, the record of Newt Gingrich ally Riggs, as he told the Los Angeles Times last week, is "a steady progression from someone who started with pretty moderate beliefs to someone who has become fairly conservative. That's just my own life experience, my growth, my development as a public official." (Riggs' lifetime American Conservative Union rating is 73. In 1996 it was 85.)

Noting that the congressman faced another rock 'em-sock 'em reelection battle this year-this time against popular State Sen. Mike Thompson-one longtime Friend of Frank's suggested that Riggs' decision to run statewide was "a case of going up-or-out, like in the military. After four rough trips to the polls every two years, it does make sense to try to go statewide for a job with a six-year term instead of facing a tiger like Thompson."

But that's what most depresses Golden State Republicans about Riggs' decision-that the one 1st District Republican capable of defanging a "tiger like Thompson" is abandoning the race, making the district one of the likeliest in the nation to go from Republican to Democratic this year. When I spoke to veteran political consultant Harvey Hukari and State GOP Chairman Mike Schroeder, neither could come up with a name of a likely nominee for Riggs' seat.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Jan 30, 1998
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