Bilbray's past may haunt his candidacy

By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 18, 2006 7:52 PM PST ∞

I like Brian Bilbray. I really do.

He was the first public official I ever interviewed as a newspaper reporter. My first day on the job of the Chula Vista Star-News, I was told to get a quote to flesh out another reporter's story, as that reporter had already gone home for the day. "Here, call Bilbray, he's always good for a quote" ---- and the city editor handed me a slip of paper with Bilbray's home number on it.

Bilbray was then on the county Board of Supervisors, already famous locally from his days as the brash young mayor of Imperial Beach who had personally hopped in a bulldozer to force the state's hand on some long-forgotten issue. I don't remember what the story I was working on was about, but Bilbray took the call in middle of dinner and graciously gave me ---- someone he'd never even heard of, much less met ---- the quote I needed.

Through the years, that professionalism and courtesy have remained. Bilbray has never failed to return a call nor ducked a tough question.

His moderate brand of politics is also about the best fit of any politician to this region. Supportive of the environment but not to the exclusion of some development, in favor of legalized abortion but with reasonable limits, Bilbray has always displayed the kind of common-sense pragmatism that drives the ideologues crazy but resonates with the rest of us.

So there's little to dislike about the man.

Having said all that, I'm nonetheless incredulous that Bilbray is trying to win Randy Cunningham's old seat in Congress, for this simple reason: Bilbray's overarching political message has always been one of pure parochialism: Those nasty rich people in North County are trying to screw over the working-class neighborhoods of the South Bay and he, Brian Bilbray, was never going to let that happen.

Now he wants to represent us?

That would be a bit like having Tommy Lasorda become manager of the Padres, or Al Davis buying the Chargers. It wouldn't necessarily be bad over the long haul, but it would be indisputably weird in the immediate here and now.

As Sean Connery proved, one should never say never. Still, Bilbray as representative of a huge swath of North County flies in the face of his political history. It would be an interesting fit at best.

Or perhaps Bilbray is simply betting that his history of North County-bashing may not matter all that much. With the constant influx of new residents, how many voters will even remember that Bilbray built his political career by bashing North County? How many voters even lived here then? It would be entertaining to watch him try to explain his change of heart without admitting to pure expediency, but given the political short-term memory loss in this region he may be hoping it won't be necessary for him to do so.

Regardless of whether voters remember his history of campaigning against North County, Bilbray's decision to enter this race will provide at least one positive: While campaigning up here, Bilbray is bound to notice ---- finally ---- that we have working-class neighborhoods up here, too, that not everyone in North County resides in Rancho Santa Fe or La Costa.

Contact staff writer Jim Trageser at (760) 740-5424 or jtrageser@nctimes.com.