The Valleycrat is an endangered species.

A storied Central Valley political hybrid, the moderate-to-conservative Valleycrat stressed regional loyalty first and foremost. Party labels were secondary. Bipartisan cooperation was commonplace, particularly on farm and water issues. Cross-party personal relationships were warm or at least respectful.

Now? Not so much.

"That's gone from both parties; there's no question about it," said former San Joaquin Valley congressman John Krebs, a Democrat. "Now, the well is so poisoned."

The cost of division, experts agree, could be significant. The Valley's delegation needs cohesion because it is dwarfed by larger interests from Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Rancor and distrust weaken the region's power.

"If our people don't work together, our voice is just diluted that much more," said Joel Nelsen, president of the Exeter-based California Citrus Mutual.

Nonetheless, in the past decade, relations have frayed and partisanship has increased. It often seems that Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of Visalia and Democratic Rep. Jim Costa of Fresno can barely disguise their mutual loathing. Breaking a live-and-let-live tradition, Valley lawmakers are explicitly trying to unseat their colleagues.

In Sacramento, some Valley legislators face attack from members of their own party if they don't toe the partisan line. In Washington, House Republicans have been writing a California water bill for the past year without letting Democrats into the room.

"For three decades or longer, Valley Democrats and Republicans worked together. We had far more in common than what differences we had," Costa said. "All that has changed in the last couple of years."

Not everyone agrees that relationships have fallen apart.

Freshman Rep. Jeff Denham, who recently moved his residence from Atwater to Turlock, insisted relations among Valley lawmakers are "good and getting better," and noted as an example that he is meeting with Costa this week.

Nunes said that while he thinks the idea of a moderate Valleycrat "is gone," he said that "where we can work together, we work together."

Tempered politicians

Political analyst Tony Quinn, a former Republican legislative staffer, and Fresno Republican and former Secretary of State Bill Jones both trace the demise of the Valleycrat in part to the congressional and legislative districts that were drawn after the 1980 census.

It was partisan gerrymandering that ushered in a decade of Democratic Party dominance in California. In the process, it politically segregated parts of the Valley along racial lines, Quinn said.

Before that time, for instance, it was common to have a heavily Hispanic part of Fresno in a district with an affluent white area such as Old Fig Garden. That moderated politics and tempered politicians of both parties.

A one-time Fresno County supervisor, Krebs served in the House of Representatives between 1975 and 1979. It seemed a golden era for Valleycrats.

Texas native-turned-San Joaquin Valley resident Bernie Sisk, a fellow House Democrat, was tending to the region's farmers with the help of conservative Southern allies.

From Roseville, in the Sacramento Valley, business-friendly Democrat Harold "Bizz" Johnson was pushing roads and dams with GOP help.

Both were out of Congress by 1981.

In 1970, the late Republican Ken Maddy won 57% of the vote in an Assembly seat that had just 31% registered as Republicans. He went on to represent the region for nearly three decades before term limits forced him out of office in 1998.