CA-46: Run Away!

Earlier today, I noted that Curt Weldon has gone completely into hiding, ducking the media and even his own constituents while he runs for re-election. This is fast becoming a trend among House incumbent Republicans. I mentioned that Brian Bilbray appears to be hiding out in CA-50, and Richard Pombo has similarly denied all media requests in CA-11.

And here's another one. Before last night's debate in Huntington Beach with Democrat Jim Brandt, the Courage Campaign in California organized a protest along with Military Families Speak Out to confront Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (CA-46) on the continual rude behavior he has shown the families of those in uniform. They asked me to help out by creating this video. Around 4 minutes in, the protestors confront Rohrabacher. He doesn't even bother to stop. Notice what he says to Tim Kahlor, whose son is in Iraq:



"You’re calling your son a war criminal."

Rohrabacher was running away so fast he didn't even manage to get the context of what Kahlor was saying.

There are enough examples of this to call it a full-fledged tactic. I guess the idea is to lay so low that voters will just re-elect them on the basis of incumbency and party ID, I guess. I'm not sure this ostrich strategy will work; but it shows you just how endangered incumbents feel.