Along with the two Republican nominees Cares and McCampbell and incumbent Democrat Sam Farr, there are three other candidates on the District 17 ballot. They are Art Dunn, Scott Hartley, and Rick Garrett.

Dunn, a perennial Democratic candidate since 1986, is an independent businessman in telecommunications. He served in the Marine Corps during World War II and has been a resident of Monterey for 35 years. He holds a MA from Columbia University. The issue Dunn is most concerned with this campaign year is international trade in Asia. "Billionaire currency speculators drove down the value of Asian currency, bankrupting Asian businesses and impoverishing millions," says Dunn. "Our stake in this is that 50 percent of California''s export trade is with Asia and now they can''t afford to buy from us."

Even if Dunn does not win the primary, he hopes to help implement solutions to this crisis. "The current International Monetary Fund system couldn''t develop a peanut stand," said Dunn. "We need to go back to the Bretton Woods system of exchange developed after World War II. This system had fixed exchange rates which prevented speculation. It was this system that built a successful world economy out of the ruins of war."

Scott Hartley, 48, is a software engineer for his own company, Shadowfax. He is a member of the Natural Law Party, which was founded in 1992. The Natural Law Party believes government must take a prevention-oriented approach to problems and issues instead of a crisis intervention approach.

The major issues on Hartley''s platform are health care reform and campaign reform. "I''d like to see Medicare and Medicaid promote preventive and holistic health care," says Hartley. "The government should fund studies that verify which holistic practices work, but their liaison with medical Political Action Committees (PACs) prevent this."

PACs are also at the head of Hartley''s campaign reform agenda. "PACs are a crime against democracy," he said, "but getting Republicans and Democrats to turn away from them is like getting a bunch of addicts off their drug."

Rick Garrett, 40, is president of his family owned business, Happy Tours Vacations. Rick is a Libertarian, a bare bones party that pares government all the way down to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.