The year was 1978. A Georgia peanut farmer was president. The Cold War raged. Robert Matsui was first elected to Congress. Mike Dugas turned 1 year old.

Fast forward to 2004. A Texas oil tycoon is president. The war on terrorism rages. Robert Matsui is seeking his fourteenth term in the House of Representatives.

And Mike Dugas, now a few years older, is running against Matsui for Congress.

Dugas, a 26-year-old UC Davis graduate student working toward his doctorate in statistics, has begun a steep uphill battle against the Congressional veteran in a contest pitting an ambitious David against a political Goliath.

And as the legend goes, the underdog sometimes shocks the world. Can Dugas do the same — or do the comparisons stop here?

Dugas has played an integral part of the Davis College Republicans since 2001, when the group consisted of only 80 members. Today, DCR membership estimates range between 600 and 800 students. California’s conservative bigwigs have watched DCR become the most important youth-based right-wing activism group in the state under Dugas’ reign.

Campaign manager George Andrews said that the idea of Dugas for Congress came directly from the California Republican Party, which sees DCR as potential insurgents capable of shaking up the region on a much larger scope than just campus politics.

“We’re trying to bring a fresh perspective to an area in dire need of fresh ideas,” Andrews said.

DCR is known for its unusual methods and effectiveness among conservative California organizations. Protests, sit-ins, rallies — usually thought of as left-wing exercises — are nothing strange for the group. Already this quarter, DCR crashed a pro-choice Roe vs. Wade anniversary celebration in the UC Davis quad to rail against abortion rights supporters. A similar clash last year resulted in a fistfight and an arrest.

The Dugas campaign will focus on building grassroots support throughout the region, but faces its biggest challenge energizing a constituency rarely treated to political competition. Matsui received 71 percent of the vote in 2002 and garnered almost three times the votes of his closest competitor in the 1998 and 2000 elections. Matsui’s not just old wood n he’s essentially an unmovable oak tree.

If the Davis kids (Andrews is 20 years old) can excite the 75-year-old Republicans in the district the way they can incite crowds on their side of the causeway, Dugas may have something.

At DCR’s side in the fight to take over District 5 will be Sacramento State’s College Republicans, led by Jeffrey Allen, who has already helped the campaign by gathering signatures to get Dugas on the ballot. But Allen is keeping his hopes in check.

“I think that it is safe to say that District 5 is safe for Democrats,” Allen admits. “We will be working, though, to help (Dugas) to get greater than 35 percent of the vote.”

Dugas has the character and a good message about underrepresented conservatism in Sacramento. But can he persuade a re-energized Republican base to donate to the cause? That question may ultimately decide his campaign’s fate.

Given the speed that political races can exceed these days, 10 months is an eternity for Dugas to get Fifth District Republicans up in arms. With Internet campaigning allowing for unprecedented mobilization of human resources, Dugas has a chance.

The sapling conservative youth movement is here. But is it their time?

If so, Mike Dugas could soon start his 26-year reign as Sacramento’s old wood in Congress.