Durston will challenge Lungren again

An emergency room doctor with virtually no political experience announced Sunday his second campaign to oust Rep. Dan Lungren of Gold River on an anti-war, pro-universal health care platform.

Drawing comparisons to a race between a tandem bicycle and a Hummer, Dr. Bill Durston, 58, acknowledged there would be "a lot of fun" and "a lot of work" ahead as he tries to unseat a GOP politician from the Republican-leaning 3rd Congressional District this year.

"We're going to pump that bicycle to Washington, D.C.," the Democrat told about 200 supporters at Sacramento's Dante Club.

In a 2006 election year that saw huge Democratic gains in Congress, Lungren nonetheless handily defeated Durston, 59 percent to 38 percent. The 3rd District spans Alpine, Amador and Calaveras counties, as well as parts of Sacramento and Solano counties.

In an interview before his speech, Durston said he entered that race only nine months before the election with no campaign infrastructure. This time, he told supporters, the campaign has already raised $100,000.

The latest statements on file show that as of Sept. 30, Lungren had more than $500,000 on hand to Durston's $29,000.

Durston and his supporters acknowledged they've got a difficult campaign in a district in which Republicans hold the registration edge over Democrats 42 percent to 36 percent. But with better fundraising and grass-roots mobilization, Durston said he hopes to capitalize on voter discontent with the Iraq war and do what Democratic candidate Jerry McNerney did in 2006 in the 11th Congressional District – oust a sitting Republican congressman.

Durston said he favors a universal health care system where "everybody has access to the same care without regard to a person's ability to pay" by expanding on the existing Medicare system.

Durston, who served in Vietnam with the Marines, said Lungren remains in "lock-step" with President Bush on the continued presence of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Al Ezell, 65, and Samira Alqazzaz, 66, each paid $30 to attend the campaign kick-off.

Alqazzaz, a native of Iraq, said it's not just American soldiers who have died there – her people and culture have suffered, too. Ezell, an ex-Republican, said he left the party because of the war.

"From the perspective of everybody here, it's work for Bill or lay down and let Dan Lungren run uncontested," said Fred Rowe, a retired emergency room doctor who worked with Durston. "People here are unwilling to do that."

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