Lagomarsino Is Bitter and Exhausted After Defeat

SHELL BEACH, Calif. —  Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino, the only incumbent congressman to go down to defeat in the California primary, knew he was in trouble throughout the campaign, but that hardly softened the blow.

Surrounded by aides at his adoptive home Wednesday, the veteran lawmaker said the loss to Michael Huffington, a former Texas oilman who said he would spend whatever it took to win, left him bitter and exhausted.

“I never planned to stay until I was carried out,” said Lagomarsino, who is serving his ninth term in Congress. “I wanted to walk out when I was ready to leave, and when I felt there was someone good to replace me. It was not to be, I guess. . . . It hurts.”

Lagomarsino and his wife, Norma, say they will return to their Ventura beach house, leaving behind the condo they rented in San Luis Obispo County. “We love it here,” said Norma Lagomarsino, standing on the bluffs near the condo overlooking the ocean. “It’s too bad the people here don’t love us.”

Defeated by nearly a 7% margin, or about 5,000 voters, Lagomarsino second-guessed the strategy of his own campaign. He also attacked Huffington for spending more than $2.7 million of his own money to pull off the upset in the new 22nd Congressional District, which encompasses San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.

Since the start of the campaign, Lagomarsino knew the race would be difficult. He left his home in Ventura County at the urging of Gov. Pete Wilson and White House political strategists; they counseled the move north into the new district to avoid a primary battle with his protege, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), in the aftermath of reapportionment.

In return, Republican leaders tried to persuade Huffington not to challenge the longtime loyal Republican congressman. But the wealthy Santa Barbara businessman remained determined to launch his political career.

Lagomarsino, 65, said he does not regret his decision to move for the sake of Gallegly. He said he plans to return to Ventura County, in part to make sure the voters return his friend to Congress.

Lagomarsino said he realized a couple of months ago, after Huffington’s ads were on every radio and TV station, that his campaign was in big trouble. He said he became so frustrated by the barrage of slick ads that he stopped watching television, and that he felt as if he was being portrayed as a “monster.”

He said he loaned his campaign nearly $192,000 in the closing weeks, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

“I was outspent 6 to 1,” the congressman said. “Those are rather tough odds to overcome. It is like running a clean race against an opponent on steroids.”

But what was even more painful was the split in Santa Barbara’s clubby Republican Party, a division that disrupted loyalties and strained friendships. “Meanness, deception and . . . bickering” fractured longtime Republican alliances, he said.

Lagomarsino said he has no plans other than to return to his $1-million oceanfront home just north of Ventura.

Come January, it will be the first time in 34 years that Lagomarsino has not held public office. Beginning with the Ojai City Council, Lagomarsino moved on to spend 12 years in the state Senate and 18 years in Congress. He was elected to the House in 1974, one of the few Republicans to win election to Congress at the height of the Watergate scandal.