If I could give out honorary LGBT cards, U.S. Congresswoman Susan Davis would be at the top of my list. As the representative from California’s 53rd District, which includes Hillcrest, she has stood up for the LGBT community at every turn.
Many congressmembers check all the right boxes: “No” on 8, “yes” on marriage equality, 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign congressional scorecard. Davis has done all that and more, both nationally and locally.
While former Rep. Patrick Murphy, a veteran, led the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Davis used her personnel subcommittee to hold hearings that the Armed Forces Committee chair, former Rep. Ike Skelton, refused to hold. In San Diego, she has used her office to mentor future LGBT leaders, like Councilman Todd Gloria and once and (hopefully) future sailor Joseph Rocha.
So naturally, I plan to ask for more. Lobbying San Diego’s congressional delegation on LGBT issues is entirely predictable: warm words and actions from Reps. Filner and Davis, cold shoulders from Reps. Issa, Hunter (Sr. or Jr.), and Bilbray. (Though their staff members have always been welcoming and respectful.) I’d like to see Rep. Davis use her strong voice for equality to silence a voice on the other side: Congressman Brian Bilbray. Newly proposed U.S congressional districts in California may give her, and the progressive community, a great opportunity.
While the LGBT Redistricting Task Force has focused on San Diego City Council Districts, California’s U. S. Congressional Districts are also being redrawn, for the first time by an independent commission. Their preliminary map broke up some of the most gerrymandered districts in the nation, moving many representatives out of their districts, creating new districts with two, or no, incumbents.
In San Diego, the districts have rotated counter-clockwise. Under the proposed map, Rep. Bilbray’s district moves southwest, picking up La Jolla and parts of Rep. Davis’s “old” 53rd District, leaving Bilbray’s home in the same new district as Rep. Darryl Issa. The “new” 53rd, where Rep. Davis still lives, flows west then south, keeping the gayborhood, ceding the beaches and adding La Mesa and areas south of Lemon Grove. Those areas came from Rep. Bob Filner’s 51st District and Rep. Duncan Hunter’s 52nd District, both of which generally moved a little north or west.
Bilbray’s current district is already somewhat moderate, voting for President Obama in 2008 and for Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina in 2010. If the proposed map is adopted, the new “50th” will tilt even more Democratic. This presents a problem for Bilbray, whose high water mark in the current district was 57 percent, that being in the Republican wave of 2010. (Davis, a Democrat, received 63 percent of the District 53 vote that year).
The fact is, Bilbray, or at least his voting record, has long been more conservative than District 50. “Yes” on the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage (2006). “No” on the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009). “No” on the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (2010). Absent for the DREAM Act (2010), but clearly against it. Lest we forget, one can spot undocumented immigrants by looking “… at the kind of dress you wear, there’s different type of attire, there’s different type of … right down to the shoes, right down to the clothes.”
In many ways, Bilbray evokes the curious case of Rick Santorum, a former senator (and now presidential candidate) from my native Pa. Santorum was elected in the Republican sweep of 1994, revealing his true colors as he climbed the leadership ladder, vehemently opposing abortion, promoting “intelligent design” and comparing homosexuality to incest and bestiality. In 2006, he lost by 17 points to Sen. Bob Casey, Jr., a candidate with high name recognition who reminded even right-leaning Pennsylvanians that they weren’t that conservative.
Bilbray could be prime for a similar loss if he runs in the new district, with the right competition. He has survived largely on solid fundraising, incumbency and somewhat low profile challengers. Rep. Davis would negate all of those advantages. She would have high name recognition, and a cadre of coastal constituents who are used to pulling the lever for her. Both would technically be incumbents, but neither would live in the new district, muting the “carpetbagger” issue.
If the proposed map is enacted, the new “53rd” District should be a fairly safe Democratic seat, and the congresswoman’s easiest path to re-election. My personal hope, though, is that she will seize the opportunity to silence a voice of intolerance, and put a majority of San Diego’s congressional delegation on the side of equality. If not, I hope she’s groomed someone almost as good for the race.
Joel’s column is informative and timely, especially on resdistricting issues. The Congresswoman has been a modest champion of equality issues, from leading the debate on the repeal of DADT to other issues.
Yet, as we look at how the new districts might expand out towards El Cajon and taking in the now-Dem-majority area of La Mesa, what does it really mean to be an LGBT advocate?
Ms Davis account may be found lacking in certain areas. You may know that LGBT warrior and whistleblower Private Bradley Manning, was detained in solitary confinement during many days from July 2010 to April 2011. Despte the fact that Congresswoman Davis could have simply dialed one phone call to ensure that Pvt Manning was treated humanely (he was not: deprived even of bedsheets, exercise, and made to stand naked for inspections) — her staff has informed us that she did not even bother.
This is rather sad. At $174,000 /yr in salary, you might expect more from an LGBT advocate.
Perhaps that time was during Davis’s busy and fully comped First Class travel to Austria and Japan. Join the FREE BRADLEY MANNING contingent at PRIDE this Saturday to learn more, and to enjoin the Congresswoman to tardily pick up the phone and ensure Bradley Manning is in OK mental condition, and ready to stand trial for his acts of conscience.
Mike