In race for Calif. House seat, U. grad faces an uphill battle

When he graduated from Wharton in 1987, Dan Rosenberg was not too concerned with politics. Though his freshman year roommate was class president, and there was an anti-apartheid sit-in his junior year, Rosenberg chose not to take an active role in politics, save for bringing food to his protesting friends at the provost's office. But after living in the Fresno, Calif., area -- a district that faces 15 percent unemployment and a high illiteracy rate -- Rosenberg decided there needed to be change. "I never thought a regular person could run for office," said Rosenberg, who is now campaigning to unseat popular three-term Republican incumbent George Radanovich in California's 19th congressional district. Tom Davies, a 1986 Penn graduate who considered Rosenberg his best friend in college, said that Rosenberg has what it takes to "overcome the inertia of a system that is so infused with special interest money." "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he is the right man for Congress," Davies said. Rosenberg said he has always been concerned with labor. As a Wharton student, he took an Entrepreneurial Management class, which had "entire class sessions dedicated to fighting the unions." Now he is a "100 percent supporter of unions." While he said he wished that Wharton concentrated a little bit more on business ethics when he was a student, Rosenberg says that he had a "wonderful education" at Penn. "It allowed me to be successful in businesses and philanthropic ventures," he said. After graduating, Rosenberg went to New York City to work as a management consultant to the banking industry for several years. He then started his own screen-printing business, but decided to sell the business and move to California in 1995. In San Francisco, Rosenberg ran a non-profit screen-printing business that employed people recovering from drug addiction. But last summer Rosenberg decided to run for Congress against a man who, in his opinion, "reminded me of Chauncy the gardener in Being There by Jerzy Kosinski." That convinced him to go for it. And while he is running an insurgent campaign, Rosenberg said he is anything but dismayed at the obstacles he must overcome this November. Amy Walter, an analyst with the non-partisan Cook Political Report, said that Rosenberg faces an uphill battle. "I think he has positioned himself well for November," Walter said of Rosenberg's opponent, who enjoyed an 80 percent margin of victory in the last election. But Rosenberg's fearlessness in this campaign has been the status quo for a man who was captain of the sailing team while a student at Penn. "My life has been a great adventure since I graduated," he said. Concerned about campaign finance reform, Rosenberg said he plans to make that issue a big priority if he upsets Radanovich in November