BREAKING: Mattie Fein may run for Harman's congressional seat
Representative Jane Harman (D-Cal) has announced that she is resigning from Congress to become director of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). That will set off a special election in California's 36th district, which Harman has represented since 2000. In an email to me this evening, Harman's 2010 Republican opponent, Mattie Fein, told me that she is seriously considering running in the special election.Harman, 65 , has held the southern California 36th district since 2000 when she upended then Rep. Steve Kuykendall (R). She also ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1998, losing a primary to then Lt. Gov. Gray Davis. Her husband, Sidney, is the owner of Newsweek magazine.The rest of the post at the Fix talks about potential Democratic candidates for Harman's seat - uber-Liberal Marcy Winograd (who is strongly anti-Israel) gave Harman a strong challenge in the 2010 primary.
Harman's exit was a surprise to many Democrats who reported first hearing off it on the MSNBC airwaves. She did, however, let House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) know of her planned resignation before it went public, according to an informed source.
It will set off a special election in what has grown to be a reliably Democratic seat. President Obama won the seat in 2008 by 30 points and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry carried it by 19 in 2004.
Politico's Mike Allen reports that Harman resigned out of fear of redistricting, although from what I recall seeing when I was in the US in December, California is slated to gain seats. I suspect there was another reason Harman resigned.
What's of greater interest to me is whether Mattie Fein, who ran against Harman in November's general election, will be a candidate, and whether she has a chance of winning. Mattie is very strongly pro-Israel, was endorsed by former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, and bolted into the spotlight via one of the cleverest campaign ads of last November's elections.
I sent Mattie an email asking her whether she would consider running again, and here's her response:
As I predicted, and as reported by Forbes prior to the November 2, 2010 election, Harman seems to be retiring. Her run in 2010 was not only a collosal waste of time to voters of the 36th District, but frankly to those in the Jewish community that continued to pose the question to leadership in the Republican party and the Republican Jewish Coalition, "Tell me why Fein is better than Harman on Israel." The answer has been constant and sustainable in both my interviews with IsraelMatzav, blogger Eric Golub of Tygrrrr Express, and by being honored by the endorsement of Former Ambassador John Bolton.Run Mattie run!
As I had very different plans going forward both in the private business sector and on a personal level, I now found myself re-evaluating the plans I made to re-group the campaign, actively retire the campaign debt, and will be at CPAC this week in key meetings concerning the special election.
Labels: California 36, Jane Harman, Marcy Winograd, Mattie Fein
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:42 PM
4 Comments:
This is the first time since the state was recognized in the mid-1800s that California is not going to gain seats in the House. It is not losing any either. Harman's district would (potentially) be remapped as more of the population is in urban LA rather than suburban/industrial South Bay.
Since this is the first time the new commission is working on redistricting, I don't think anyone has a clue as to what will happen.
The Democratic Legislature was stripped in November of its sole remaining power to reapportion congressional districts and this now rests with an independent redistricting commission.
Its any one's guess what the new lines will look like.
I hope she runs....she got name recognition with the Tea Party if nothing else.
I hope she runs...she has name recognition with the Tea Party at minimum.
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