Bridging gap between parties for change

It’s time to “call shenanigans” on the Washington political class, according to Democratic Congressional candidate Dan Kalmick

Kalmick repeatedly used the phrase during a recent wide-ranging interview, saying Washington has grown increasingly disconnected from the people it represents.

“People are flat-out just making things up — they go on television and they can say anything they want, and no one calls shenanigans,” he said. “They’re acting like children and there are very few people who will report what someone said in the past, compare it to what they’re saying now, and say, ‘That person is a liar.’”

Kalmick, a small business owner from Huntington Beach, is challenging three other Democrats — OCC professor Richard Lara, Costa Mesa resident Alan Schlar and Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook — for the chance to challenge Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in the general election this November. Ronald R. St. John, a Huntington Beach property rights attorney, will face Rohrabacher in the GOP primary.

While lacking in political experience, Kalmick hopes the entrepreneurial shrewdness he’s cultivated over the past decade — he started a computer consulting firm as a teenager — will serve him well as the race moves forward.

“One of the great things about my business is that it allows me to work with just about anybody — everybody’s got a computer,” he said. “Large corporations, public schools, small businesses, I know them all.”

Kalmick hopes this exposure will allow him to approach people from all walks of life throughout the campaign season. Indeed, a cornerstone of his strategy will include wooing Republicans — votes he said he’ll need to win the general election — and asking them to consider if they truly ascribe to the party’s values, he said.

“You can talk to people who still make a lot of money, think they are Republicans, but still make under $250,000 a year,” he said. “They have kids who want to go to college, and they don’t want to have to pay for that — they want federal help. So you can ask them: Would you like Pell Grants? Yes. Subsidized Stafford loans? Yes. Well, the Bush Administration has cut funding for those.”

Kalmick said his progressive social policies — including strong protections for the environment, cutting “corporate welfare” to oil companies and investing in alternative energy, and his call for a withdrawal from Iraq — will also appeal to many moderate local Republicans, who he says may be growing tired of Rohrabacher’s conservative social views. Rohrabacher declined to comment.

Kalmick also criticized Cook.

“Debbie would make a great candidate, but I don’t think that she can really reach out to Republicans,” he said. “I really think that I speak to a younger generation, speak more to change. [In] some of the videos she has on her website, she talks about ‘the boys in Washington’ not doing business well together,” he said. “While they fight, I think they respect each other and are cordial…I don’t think that mentality is going to play well when she stands up and talks to people.”

Cook said she wasn’t sure what to make of Kalmick’s remarks.

“I don’t know what he’s basing that on; I’ve never even met the guy. It just sounds like pure political rhetoric,” she said. “The truth is, I’ve been on a city council for many years, working with people of all persuasions,” she added. “Every single day in Orange County, I have to reach across the aisle. When I look at people, I don’t see whether they are [Republican or Democrat], I just see people.”

CHRIS CAESAR may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at [email protected].