It’s official: well-known Orange County Republican Scott Baugh filed papers Friday evening to run against Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, his onetime friend and mentor.

In a statement, Baugh said voters “deserve a Representative who is in touch and focused on what’s important to the families who live here.”

“Three decades in Congress can change a person and unfortunately Dana has changed,” Baugh continued. “He has lost focus on what’s important and does not seem to understand that the middle-class families in our district care more about their jobs, the economy and taxes than about Vladimir Putin, Julian Assange and marijuana.”

Baugh, a former state legislator who led the Orange County GOP for more than a decade, has been contemplating a run in Rohrabacher’s district for some time but had previously said he wouldn’t unless the 15-term congressman from Costa Mesa retired.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.