EDITOR'S NOTE: With the Democrats needing to gain only six seats in the House to win a majority, districts where there is some chance of a shift are drawing particular attention. But in a crucial district Silicon Valley, that is evidently no guarantee of a race with clear distinctions. PNS editor Rene Ciria-Cruz was also the longtime editor of Filipinas Magazine in San Francisco.

Silicon Valley, undisputed capital of the New Economy, is also the site of one of the country's most hotly contested congressional races, one of six that Democrats must win if they are to become a majority in the House of Representatives. But voters will need precision instruments to detect real differences between the chief contenders.

Democrat Mike Honda, handpicked by President Clinton, and Republican Jim Cunneen, a social moderate, are rivals in District 15, comprising a key chunk of Silicon Valley and including Santa Cruz. The current representative, Republican Tom Campbell, is running for the Senate against Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Cunneen and Honda have similar positions on key national and local issues. Both support raising the cap on "H-1B visas," the special visas for temporary immigrants with high-tech training. Despite strenuous efforts to find differences in their voting records as members of the State Assembly, both are pro-choice and for gun control.

Both favor normalizing trade relations with China. They oppose school vouchers, racial profiling and taxing the Internet. So what's to choose?

Their first public face-off September 6th in Santa Clara failed to reveal any gulfs in substance, though Cunneen showed a clear edge in debating skills. The hour-long joust included a grilling by a panel of journalists from ethnic media. (The event was sponsored by the ethnic news consortium New California Media and the Chinese American Voters Education Committee.)

Some subtle demarcations did appear.

Honda says he would not have voted for the Colombia aid package, having witnessed the effects of U.S. involvement in El Salvador in the 1980s. Cunneen stresses drug treatment and prevention in the United States over drug interdiction abroad, but says he would not second-guess Congress "which might have privileged information that we don't have."

Cunneen, a proud Eagle Scout and "a moderate on gay rights overall," believes that as a private organization the Boys Scouts "are free to do what they want as long they don't take federal funds." Honda thinks "it is wrong even for a private organization to exclude homosexuals if they are involved in educating young people."

With little to distinguish them ideologically, Honda and Cunneen trade on their life experiences. Cunneen emphasizes his experience in the Assembly and in the high tech industry, Honda also highlights his Assembly record, but dwells on his personal experience as a Japanese American internee in World War II, a Peace Corps volunteer and public school teacher.

Cunneen, 39, a former high-tech executive, offers himself as a flexible independent who can differ with his party's positions on social issues. "This is not a race between the Republicans and the Democrats," he says, "but between Jim Cunneen and Mike Honda." Honda, he says, is so loyal to labor unions the AFl-CIO has given him a "100-percent rating."

Honda, 59, says he is loyal to "principles" he has acquired as a community organizer "who tries to bring everyone to the table." He is proud, he says, of his labor support but also claims independence on such issues as normalizing trade with China and raising the cap on H1-B visas.

The two do hold to their party lines on the role of government. Cunneen wants "less government" and more room for individual productivity. Honda says that even though "government makes mistakes," it must continue to "play a role in improving people's lives."

Honda won 62,876 votes to Cunneen's 53,282 in the March open primary, but there are no reliable current polls. Of the district's 310,382 registered voters 136,382 are Democrats and 109,347 are Republicans.

Democrats find the hard-to-polarize contest vexing because this is one of four California seats they have a good shot at winning in their bid to gain a majority in Congress (a gain of six seats would give the Democrats control).

The three other districts considered up for grabs include District 27-Los Angeles County, where GOP incumbent James Rogan is challenged by Democratic State Senator Adam Schiff, and District 49-San Diego County, with GOP incumbent Brian Bilbray facing Democratic Assembly Member Susan A. Davis.

Rogan and Bilbray still support Prop. 187, the 1994 ballot measure barring public aid to undocumented immigrants, which is said to have alienated the state's GOP from Latino and immigrant voters.

In District 36-Los Angeles County moderate Republican incumbent Steven Kuykendall faces Democrat Jane Harman.

Analysts note that the four districts have sizable numbers of Latino voters -- 12% in District 27; 10% in both Districts 49 and 36.

Silicon Valley's District 15 has 23,394 Latino registered voters, or 7% of the electorate. Neither congressional candidate, however, has a guaranteed advantage among Latinos here.