Third-party candidates set

If you’re frustrated with the war in Iraq, Bea Tiritilli’s got her

eye on you. Fiscally conservative Democrat? Bruce Cohen’s your man.

And discontented Republicans, Jim Gilchrist is making his pitch for

your vote.

Actually, the Oct. 4 special election for the 48th District

congressional seat will be a free-for-all, and third-party candidates

are trying to appeal to anyone who’s not satisfied with the

Republican status quo.

The primary to succeed former Rep. Chris Cox -- now chairman of

the Securities and Exchange Commission -- is open, so voters can

choose from any of 17 candidates on the ballot regardless of their

party registration. If no one takes more than 50% of the vote, the

top vote getter from each of the five parties represented will

compete in a Dec. 6 general election.

Libertarian Bruce Cohen, American Independent Party candidate Jim

Gilchrist and Green Party candidate Bea Tiritilli are their parties’

sole representatives on the ballot, so they don’t have the same kind

of primary election fight as the four Democrats or 10 Republicans

vying for the House seat.

But if they want to prevail, they’ll have to glean voters from

other parties. Here’s why they think they can do it.

The minor-party candidate with the highest profile, and the only

one with a whiff of celebrity, is Minuteman Project founder Jim

Gilchrist.

The 56-year-old retired accountant and former Marine entered the

career world as a journalist, which is probably the key to his media

savvy.

After what he calls “10 years of neglect by my political

representatives,” he decided to take the problem of illegal

immigration into his own hands. And he knew he had to bring the media

with him.

“I thought the only way we’re going to solve the porous border and

national security problem is if you bring national attention to it,”

Gilchrist said.

So he created the Minuteman Project, a group of volunteers who

patrol the U.S.-Mexico border to discourage illegal crossings. At

first he only expected a handful of people to be interested, but when

he put out a recruitment flier and talk radio hosts picked up on it,

the project mushroomed and more than 800 people offered to

participate.

It was a reporter who first suggested he run for Congress, and

after he felt like there was enough public support, he threw his hat

in.

Enforcing immigration laws is his main focus, because he believes

a raft of other problems -- crime, hospital bankruptcy and

floundering schools -- stem from it. But he also wants to address

oppressive taxation and education reform.

Gilchrist and his followers have sometimes been characterized as

vigilantes and he’s been threatened with violence at public

appearances, but he remains affable about it.

“I don’t want to sound like there’s an enemy behind every tree and

under every table, like some kind of paranoid wacko,” he said.

“I’m not a rock star. I’m just Average Joe Citizen who saw a

problem and addressed it because no one else was addressing it.”

Gilchrist expects to get votes from both Democrats and

Republicans, but he may have to fight Libertarian Bruce Cohen for

them.

Cohen, a 44-year-old Libertarian and real estate broker, is making

his second bid for the seat. He’s running for the same reason he did

in November 2004 -- he thinks he’s the best person for the job.

The difference is that last year he also was helping Libertarians

campaign for the U.S. Senate and President, he said, but “this time

I’m focusing on me.”

He seems to agree with Gilchrist that immigration is a high

priority issue for Orange Countians, followed by national security

and the Iraq war.

While Libertarians believe in limiting the federal government’s

role, Cohen said they also think one of its main tasks is to control

the nation’s borders and ensure the safety of citizens. In his mind,

that extends to the war in Iraq.

“I would like to finish the job that we started.... I’d like to

invest a lot more time and money and make sure we end it properly

before we withdraw,” he said.

In last year’s Congressional election, only about half of the

registered Libertarians cast ballots, so Cohen’s other votes came

from “fiscally conservative Democrats, decline-to-states who wanted a

choice and from Republicans who are frustrated with the

administration’s lack of living up to a lot of their promises,” he

said.

Tiritilli, a 42-year-old high school teacher, is running a

textbook grass-roots campaign, with volunteers making their own

signs. She’s been picking a different public spot each weekend to

meet voters and answer questions.

She has known she would run for Congress since last November.

“I sat in the polling booth looking at my choices on the ballot

and feeling depressed,” she said.

Democratic candidate John Graham, who is running for the seat

again, didn’t list the war as one of his top issues, and Cohen

supported the war, Tiritilli said -- and those were the only

alternatives to the Republican Cox.

The Greens are the only party with nonviolence as part of their

platform, she said, and she thinks that will draw a swath of voters

that crosses party lines.

“The anti-war folks, they’re just fed up with the Democrats and

the Republicans,” Tiritilli said.

“I believe in social justice, I believe in fiscal responsibility.

We’re not getting that from our current administration.”

She realizes that voters are concerned about illegal immigration,

but she sees part of the problem as trade agreements that lead to

low-paying and unsafe jobs in developing countries. People would be

less likely to come to the U.S. if they could get a good job in their

own country, she said.

Putting more guards at the borders may be an answer to Gilchrist,

but it isn’t to Tiritilli.

“I do think many people agree with him. I don’t,” she said. “I

think he’ll do very well for a minor party candidate.”

48th Congressional District Voters by Party Registration

* Republican 201,687

* Democrat 108,976

* Decline to state 76,062

* American Independent 7,673

* Libertarian 2,805

* Green 2,342

* Peace and Freedom 591

* Natural Law 501

* Miscellaneous 1,369

o7* Information collected Sept. 21 by the Orange County Registrar

of Voters. Miscellaneous includes voters who wrote in a name that was

not an official political party.f7

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

[email protected].