It's hard to think of any sitting (or past, for that matter) member of Congress who has done more for commercial space efforts than Dana Rohrabacher. He's been representing his southern California district for many years, so I was a little surprised to hear that he's in a potentially tough reelection battle. But his opponent is currently out-fund-raising him, and it's going to be a generally tough year for Republicans, even those whose seats had previously been secure. So for those of you who want to keep him in Washington for his space efforts (or for other reasons), a fund has been set up to help make that happen.
If republicans want to retake congress, they need to do what got them control last time: Stand on principle even when it's politically incorrect.
The aerospace companies are moving out of Orange County. Boeing is in the process of closing down Autonetics in Anaheim and has moved most of the work out of Huntington and Seal Beach to Alabama, Houston and El Segundo. When the C-17 line closes in Long Beach, aerospace workers who live in the OC will also be out of work. Raytheon has greatly reduced it's presence at the former Hughes in Fullerton. Having lost something like 200,000 aerospace workers in the 90s in this area, the demographics have changed substantially and speaks mostly espanol. I'm not surprised that Rohrabacher is in trouble, just as was "B-1" Bob Dornan before him lost out to Loretta Sanchez.
The OC will soon be like the old steel mills in Pittsburg, the old Saturn S-2 building will still be standing but the industry will be no where to be found. Sad really.