Sam Farr

Since he was appointed to fill a vacant county supervisor seat by Gov. Jerry Brown in 1975, Sam Farr appeared on the ballot 40 times. He never lost an election.

He went on to serve in the California Assembly and U.S. Congress, and a year ago announced his plans to retire in December. His proudest moments during his 23-year congressional career include voting against the Iraq War, helping create CSU Monterey Bay and getting Pinnacles National Park upgraded from a national monument.

About a week before the Nov. 8 election, Farr spoke to the Weekly about his career, politics and what’s next for him.

Weekly: How are you feeling on the eve of retirement?

Farr: What I miss most with traveling to Washington all the time is I’m not really a participant in the community – I represent it, but I’m not in it. My friends in Carmel retired 10 years ago, they’re taking walks. I get invited to a lot of stuff midweek and I’m never here.

The hardest part about making a decision to retire is when. For me it was an age factor. I became 75 this year: You’re near the end of your life, so what do you want to do with the last good years?

So, what do you want to do with the last good years?

I’m really truly a senior citizen. I want to enjoy being a citizen in this community and not have to respond to a rigorous schedule. I have a property with a cabin down on the South Coast of Big Sur, near Lucia. My place is off the grid. I want to build a really neat, big garden. I’m getting back into kayak fishing. I want to live off fruits and vegetables, and get fish from the sea, live off the land.

How’d you get started in politics?

I broke my hand. It was my first year at Carmel High School, I go out for football, and this guy stepped on my hand – here’s a scar. It was the first week of school, and I have to go to a hand specialist in the Bay Area. [While I was there] they elected me class president! If I’d been in the room, I would have respectfully declined the nomination.

Because of that, I was on the student council, and it just happened to be the year the school was being accredited. All these adults coming to the student council, asking about quality of life. Boy, you really felt like you had a voice; you were just a kid, but adults were going to listen to you. I loved that.

Your successor will be elected into a Congress with a historically low approval rating and plagued by gridlock. Do you have any advice for them?

Keep your eye on the ball. It’s really about projects, instead of talking about the whole of government, or the whole of everything.

As much as people dislike Congress, they seem to keep electing the same people. We hate Congress, but we love our own congressmember.

When you talk about focusing on projects, it sounds like a practice derided as pork barrel spending, securing federal funding for hyper-local purposes.

It used to be positive: “I want my representative to improve my district.” The job title is a member of the House of Representatives. What do you represent? Your district.

We hear a lot about gridlock. Is Congress actually a differeny kind of place to work now than 20 years ago?

Until Trump, your opponents were always respected. It’s part of the institution of Congress. We’d talk in words of courtesy – “my colleague,” “my friend” – even when you don’t like the person at all. As my mother would say, Mr. Trump needs to learn how to mind his manners. He burned the book on manners.

Last Christmas, I would’ve bet $1,000 Trump didn’t get past the March primary. I couldn’t find anyone to take that bet, because nobody thought he was serious.

Speaking of Trump, there’s a lot of talk about the election being rigged.

What I’ve found as I do swearing-in ceremonies [for new citizens] and registering people to vote is that people go through this process of thinking, “Well, I’m not well-educated, I’m really not qualified to make important decisions.” The intimidation of the process is I think the fraud. The fraud is not in voting twice; the fraud is the pressures of not voting, the hidden fears.

Is there anything you’d do differently if you could go back and redo it?

(A long pause.) I can’t think of anything.