RIVALS VIE TO REPRESENT VAST DISTRICT CONGRESSMAN CHALLENGED.

Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - It takes a full day by car and a full canteen to cover the reapportioned 25th Congressional District, where incumbent Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, is running against Democrat Bob Conaway, a Barstow attorney.

Larger than several states, the 25th District stretches from the eastern edge of the Sunland-Tujunga area to the Nevada border and north to Mono County. It also includes the fast-growing Victorville area. The district retains the heart of McKeon's current constituency in the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.

Republicans make up 45 percent of the district's registered voters, while Democrats account for 36 percent.

``It takes a while to learn your way around Congress, develop friendships and build seniority,'' said McKeon, 64, of Santa Clarita, who is seeking his sixth term. ``The longer I am here, the more effective I become.''

McKeon said he has traveled extensively throughout the new district, meeting with local officials and receiving briefings on issues ranging from desert-wildlife preservation to federal policies affecting American Indian tribes. He said he is also looking forward to representing his boyhood neighborhood in Tujunga and his alma mater, Verdugo Hills High School.

Conaway, 50, who mounted unsuccessful challenges to Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, in 1996 and 1998, called McKeon ``a nice man, but he's a weak figure in his own party. I think I'll make a change for the better; I'll get out there and scrap.''

He accused McKeon of being hostile to measures designed to clean up the environment and of supporting President George W. Bush's economic policies, which he said are causing rising unemployment.

McKeon noted that he has long been an opponent of Bush's plan to create a national depository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nev., near Death Valley. He voted against the project earlier this year, citing concerns over the transport of nuclear materials and the danger the project posed to the Mojave Desert's scant water supplies.

McKeon, a member of the Education and the Workforce Committee and chairman of its Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness, is considered the Southern California House delegation's point man on federal issues impacting K-12 schools and colleges.

As a member of the Armed Services Committee, he has been influential in securing Pentagon programs and jobs for Edwards Air Force Base, the Air Force's prime development center for new aircraft and weapons systems.

The new 25th District also includes the Army's Fort Irwin National Training Center, the China Lake Naval Weapons Station and the Army's Mountain Warfare Training Center, near Bridgeport in Mono County.

Prior to his election to Congress in 1992, McKeon served on the Hart Union High School District Board of Trustees and as a city councilman in Santa Clarita.

Libertarians make up 0.61 of 1 percent of the district's registered voters. Frank Consolo Jr., a brewery employee from Saugus, is the Libertarian Party's candidate.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon

Republican incumbent

(2) Bob Conaway

Democratic alternative