Posted on 01/26/2006 10:33:10 AM PST by NormsRevenge
The irony is acute.
Plus, it makes a cute lead.
In 1993, Howard Kaloogian, a 32-year-old Carlsbad estate attorney, wrote a strongly worded letter to this newspaper correcting a reader's misleading take on the preamble to the Constitution.
The passionate statement of bedrock conservative principle caught the eye of Bill Morrow, then the assemblyman representing the 73rd District, who called Kaloogian and suggested he run for an open Assembly seat in the 74th.
A Reagan-adoring Republican with a razor-keen interest in politics, young Kaloogian took Morrow's advice and, to the shock and chagrin of GOP moderates, outpolled the crowded primary field and then cruised to victory in the general election.
Fast-forward 13 years.
Kaloogian is long gone from the Assembly, termed out in 2000. He spent 2001 nursing his dying mother near Detroit, where he was raised in a tightly knit Armenian community. (His maternal great-grandparents died at the hands of Turks in what Armenians refer to as "The Genocide.")
To pay the bills, Kaloogian, who's divorced, handles donor estate planning for Hillsdale College in Michigan.
To feed his constant craving for political action, he has jumped onto a fleet of bandwagons – the recall of California Gov. Gray Davis; the pro-war protest against Cindy Sheehan's anti-Bush protest in Crawford, Texas; the pro-military Move America Forward; the Defend Reagan Committee that fought the broadcast of a TV movie about the Reagans.
Kaloogian. He's North County's Energizer Bunny of conservative activism.
But here's the adorable rub.
In the April 11 special primary for the 50th Congressional District, Kaloogian will be scrapping for every vote in his hard-core Republican base.
His goal is to finish second to Francine Busby, the virtually unopposed Democrat, and then, as the top Republican vote-getter, square off against Busby in the special June runoff where the GOP advantage in voter registration will work in his favor.
But if he's going to pull off the upset, Kaloogian will have to climb over the burly body of none other than . . . Bill Morrow.
No question, the Republicans – so far, eight candidates have announced for the special primary – are headed for an April 11 shootout in which a few hundred votes one way or the other could decide who gets a shot at beating up Busby and going to Washington to replace former Rep. Randall Harold Cunningham. (Now those are itsy-bitsy shoes to fill.)
Duking it out on the right wing of the stage will be Morrow and Kaloogian. Granted, others will make a case for their conservative credentials. Former South Bay Congressman Brian Bilbray, for example, has a solid GOP track record, but he's not the rational choice for anti-abortion, pro-gun, anti-gay-marriage, red-meat Republicans whom Kaloogian identifies as his and Morrow's natural voters.
Other Republican candidates have their points – businessman Alan Uke is off to a fast (and expensive) start; former Del Mar mayor and high-tech CEO Richard Earnest is hoping for the swing vote – but Kaloogian and Morrow are GOP warhorses who only run to the right.
Sitting in front of a south Carlsbad coffeehouse, Kaloogian told me why he, and not state Sen. Morrow, will win the majority of rock-ribbed Republican votes.
"I appeal to the activist who understands that you have to take a position and advocate for it instead of someone who votes correctly and goes fishing," he said.
(Ouch! Morrow is an avid outdoorsman.)
"I'm known for promoting our position," Kaloogian continued. "I'm known for advancing our agenda, credentialing our candidates, and advancing our ideas whereas others vote correctly – and go home."
But isn't this cutting partisan edge bound to turn some voters off?
"Politics is about confrontation," he shot back. "It's about winning the war of ideas. You have to be engaged to win."
I asked the former assemblyman to describe a Kaloogian voter.
Evoking the Nixon era when the county was torn apart over a distant war, Kaloogian said his natural constituency is the Silent Majority.
"They're the home-schoolers," he said. "They're the folks who go to church and go to work and go home. That's where they go. On the weekends, they go to the soccer practice and the softball, and they go home. They go to grandma's house. They're never going to go to a rally or attend a debate, but they're there – and they vote."
As sports broadcasters like to say, there are games within games. The same goes for politics.
To me, the most fascinating individual matchup in the special primary will be Kaloogian vs. Morrow.
Morrow's persona is dignified, unflappable, even magisterial. Kaloogian, on the other hand, is a mercurial bulldog itching to mix it up with Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Barbara Boxer and all the other "hard-core leftists."
Out on the right, where talk radio, church leaders, the NRA, anti-abortion groups and conservative blogs exert tremendous influence, Morrow and Kaloogian will make their impassioned pitches to voters, many of whom have voted for both of them before.
At this point, it's anyone's guess if the victor in their private battle will win the spoils or if they'll split the arch-conservative vote and thus kill each other's campaigns.
If that were to happen, the irony (at least to them) would be anything but cute.
Special K fyi
Morrow is go along, get along guy and not a fighter.
I went to him, having talked to him a number of times in the past, when he was an Assemblyman and tried to got him to introduce a bill in the Assembly that would have outlawed the practice of the coroner declaring anyone over 55 is assumed to have died of natural causes.
He thought it was a good idea after explaining the circumstances to him but after discussing it with Republicans in Sacramento came back and informed me that he couldn't do it because the current State Senator from San Bernardino wanted to become County Coroner when he was term limited out and it would hurt his chances of getting the office.
Besides that, he lives in Issa's district unless he has very recently moved.
I also know Kaloogian and am 100% behind him as the best man running.
So, what does Kaloogian have to do to get Morrow out of the race?
Morrow isn't going to quit, he's term limited out after this term and doesn't have a way to earn a living except to suck off the taxpayers by being elected or live off his State pension.
I'm not from CA, but I have heard good things about Kalogian. Is this true?
I'm not from CA, but I have heard good things about Kalogian. Is this true?
Yes he is Kool.
He beats a poke in the eye. ;-)
Howard was a co-founder of Move America Forward and was very active in the Recall of davi$.
Howard Kaloogian For Congress '06
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475908/posts
Interesting read, but as a resident of Encinitas, I have to ask, where's the talk about the need to fight the illegal invasion from mexico? Where's an endorsement from Tom Tancredo? No Tancredo pledge...I stay home and yawn come election day.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1081327/posts
Congressman Tom Tancredo Endorses Kaloogian for Senate!
Howard Kaloogian for U.S. Senate ^ | 2-19-04
Posted on 02/19/2004 11:08:31 AM PST by StoneColdGOP
Well hot damn! Thanks for the info!
GO KALOOGIAN
Are you editing Wikipedia too on the side? lolol
Judgement Day is nigh. We'll see what rises to the top.
Go Howard!
Morrow won his first assembly race in my district with false and defamatory hit mailers. He does come across as a nice man when you meet him. He is way behind in the polls. He won't win the primary. His base is basically not in the district, among other things. If the K man wins the GOP primary, I would have to say that the General will have a slight Dem lean.
If you are in the 50th, I urge you to vote for Howard, he's a great conservative that won't copromise his principles.
You are free to edit Wiki, go ahead, that is what makes it so awesome...... go ahead.... THERE IS NOTHING STOPPING YOU
Kaloogian has run one of the most dishonest campaigns I have ever seen. He has used lies, distortions and misrepresentations as well as used endorsements he never had. for Howard the ends justify the means.
drgary
Howard had a picture of Tancredo on his webisite as an implied endorsement. Tancredo made him take it off.
drgary
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.