Jane Harman's retirement plans has raised the prospect that her left-wing 2008 primary challenger, Marcy Winograd, could capture the seat in a liberal California district.
One possible hitch: Winograd, a Democrat tells POLITICO, has considered leaving the party all together.
"We were informed by a colleague of Marcy's last evening that she intended to register as 'decline to state,'" said Los Angeles Democratic Party chairman Eric Bauman, referring to the state's registration for independent voters.
Winograd tells me she hasn't yet left the party: "I'm still a Democrat," she said. "I had been considering registering as a decline to state because there are a lot of people who long for independent voice, and I have always opposed the perpetual war policies of Republicans and Democrats."
Of running for the Harman seat, she said: "I'm weighting my options. I may run."
She also said one candidate, City Councilman Janice Hahn, had already called to ask her endorsement, but that she'd been putten off when her question to Hahn about Israel drew "a knee jerk repsonse that 'I'm a friend of Israel,'" which signaled to Winograd that if Hahn's elected, "we will once again have representative who is not an independent voice." She said she was waiting to see if another candidate Debra Bowen, would run.
Winograd no longer resides in CD36, and has reportedly re-registered to vote in Henry Waxman's district.
UPDATE 2/8: This morning Winograd issued a press release more or less confirming the Politico report.
‘Will you run again?’
‘I am exploring the possibility,’ I told them, adding that I live in Santa Monica now, less than a mile outside of the district that hugs the coast from Venice to San Pedro. In 2010, just months ago, the Winograd for Congress campaign mobilized 41% of the vote in a primary challenge to Harman. It was exhilarating, daunting, inspiring, and eye-opening as I precinct walked from one end of the district to the other.
Most of the support came from the northern end of the district, from Venice and Mar Vista, but we enjoyed significant inroads in the working class union strongholds of Wilmington and San Pedro.
I barely had time to digest the political possibilities before running back to class, to my South LA high school students, some of them dressed in military fatigues, where we would read Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic’s essay, “Breaking the Silence of the Night,’ a passionate account of Kovic’s transformation from blind follower to critical thinker and anti-war leader.
Winograd also stated she had yet to meet or talk with Debra Bowen, the other potential high-profile candidate besides Janice Hahn, but that she would make a decision on whether or not to run based on that meeting.
let the games begin.......
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