Dornan Drops Challenge to Rohrabacher

In an abrupt turnabout, Rep. Robert K. Dornan announced Thursday that he will run for reelection in a proposed Santa Ana congressional district and abandon plans to challenge conservative soul mate Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in a Republican primary next June.

The decision came after Dornan said he talked Thursday night with close friends, who appealed to his Republican loyalty, and Rohrabacher’s mother, who appealed to his heart.

Dornan shocked Republican leaders in California and Washington Sunday when he said he would seek a proposed Huntington Beach congressional district that had already been claimed by Rohrabacher. The move would have left a vacancy in Orange County’s only congressional district with a Democratic majority.

The intensity of the showdown grew throughout the week as the two incumbents met for two days in Washington and still appeared intransigent.

Late Thursday, however, Dornan blinked. The 15-year congressman said he was talked out of the showdown by his former chief of staff, Brian Bennett, who had already announced his plan to run for the Santa Ana district if Dornan did not. Dornan said he also called Rohrabacher’s mother, Doris, in Temecula, before he changed his mind.

“Brian Bennett called me and told me to put the party first. . . . He knew my Achilles heel,” Dornan said in a telephone interview from his home in Washington. “But Dana’s mother was the lovely straw on this Republican workhorse camel’s back.”

Rohrabacher was enthusiastic with praise for Dornan after the announcement, adding that he thought Dornan would have beaten him in the primary but that he didn’t see any other district where he could run successfully.

“It is going to be a joyous Christmas,” he said. “There is nothing that Bob Dornan could do for the rest of his life where I won’t be his friend.”

Dornan is now planning to run for reelection in the proposed 46th Congressional District, which includes much of his current district as well as the cities of Santa Ana, Garden Grove and part of Anaheim. The dispute was over the proposed 45th District in one of the most affluent and solidly Republican areas of California, stretching along Orange County’s coast from Newport Beach to the Los Angeles County line.

The proposed maps for new congressional districts in California were released earlier this month by the California Supreme Court’s special masters. The maps are not scheduled for final adoption until late next month and could still be modified. But many lawmakers are already using the unofficial lines to plan their campaigns.