The Pasadena Star News is reporting tonight that Santa Monica resident Marcy Winograd will officially enter the race to replace her long-time opponent Jane Harman.
Anti-war activist and progressive Democrat Marcy Winograd said Thursday that she’s planning a run for a soon-to-be-vacated South Bay congressional seat.An official announcement is scheduled to be made at 10 a.m. Saturday at Fox Drugs, 1327 El Prado Ave. in Torrance, Winograd said.
Winograd, a Santa Monica resident, took 41 percent of the vote in last June’s 36th Congressional District primary against Rep. Jane Harman, who is expected to resign Monday to lead the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington think tank.
Explaining her decision to run, Winograd said, “I feel that we need a real progressive in the race, somebody who has been advocating for a long, long time that we need to transition from a war economy to a green economy.”
As I reported earlier, Janice Hahn’s campaign apparently baited Winograd into running, hoping to split the progressive vote with Debra Bowen, a development which would benefit Hahn.
A PCCC poll released earlier this week between Bowen and Hahn put Bowen 4 points ahead. But an internal poll released by the Hahn campaign, which included Winograd, put Hahn 5 points over Bowen.
I think Winograd’s supporters were as much motivated by wanting Harman out as anything, but she wasn’t able to defeat her in a primary and couldn’t likely win a general. It will be important to get the Firepups on board with Debra early.
But you have to have some sense of politics. Had she jumped in early, it likely would have kept Bowen out. But waiting until now when Bowen has announced is simply a stupid political move, and does not deserve to be supported.
You won’t get my support given there’s already a great progressive in the race (Debra Bowen) and you didn’t jump in earlier.
Timing is everything.
I’ve neither been a huge fan nor a huge detractor of Marcy Winograd, but I always thought it was good for her to run against Jane Harman, thereby forcing Ms. Harman to face her constituents more often and help move her a bit toward the left on some issues. I truly believe that Ms. Winograd has had some success in that regard–although not necessarily on the issue or two on which Ms. Winograd appears to be most vocal.
But now with Sec. of State Debra Bowen in the race, I don’t see a compelling reason for anyone to actively support Ms. Winograd. Ms. Bowen has tremendous policy experience on a range of relevant issues and she is a thoughtful progressive on most issues that are important to voters in that district and throughout much of the state.
It appears that Ms. Winograd is running primarily because of one (or two) foreign policy issue(s). Certainly, Ms. Winograd has a right to run if she wants to and she’ll probably get a meaningful share of the votes. But given the makeup of the district, her entry into this race could inadvertantly provide a campaign advantage to Janice Hahn.
Make no mistake about it, there are meaningful differences between the more business-friendly, moderate Hahn and the more liberal-progressive, but not anti-business Bowen.
I have family and friends who live in that district and I will be urging them to actively support Debra Bowen for Congress. Ms. Bowen would be a passionate fighter in Congress. I hope voters will realize that this is essentially a contest between Bowen and Hahn and then vote accordingly.