California Dem Speier Leads Special Election to Succeed Lantos

[Ron Burgundy]

CQPolitics.com - Democratic attorney Jackie Speier, a former state senator who survived a cult massacre early in her long career in the public sphere, appeared in early vote returns to be on her way to win election Tuesday in California's 12th District to fill the seat left vacant by the Feb. 11 death of 14-term Democratic incumbent Tom Lantos.

The first results posted by election officials after the polls closed at 8 p.m. local time (11 p.m. eastern) showed Speier easily exceeding the majority-vote threshold needed to win the seat outright in what was technically a special election primary. By far the best known of the five candidates who ran in the single-ballot, all-party contest, Speier led in both major jurisdictions that make up the 12th District, with 69 percent of the total vote in San Francisco County and 79 percent in San Mateo County.

Speier, despite what seemed to be an easy special election win, is not yet free of campaign concerns. The regularly scheduled primary for the district's November general election for a full House term will be held on June 3, less than two months away. But Speier will be heavily favored to win the Democratic nomination over three opponents, including health policy director Michelle T. McMurry, who trailed by a wide margin in Tuesday's early special primary returns.

Two Republicans and three third-party candidates also filed for the June 3 primary, according to the roster posted by California's Secretary of State. But none of them has more than a remote chance of victory this November in a district that gave 72 percent of its votes to 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and 76 percent to Lantos when he ran his final House race in 2006. CQ Politics rates the district as Safe Democrat.

A special election victory would make Speier the new member from a Democratic-stronghold district that includes part of San Francisco and southern suburbs such as Daly City and San Mateo -- and covers territory where Speier three decades ago broke into politics as an aide to Democratic Rep. Leo J. Ryan.

In 1978, at age 28, Speier accompanied Ryan to Guyana to investigate complaints from constituents that their relatives were being mistreated at a "People's Temple" compound run by cult leader Jim Jones. She was seriously wounded by gunfire during an airport attack by cult members in which Ryan and four other members of the traveling party were killed. Authorities subsequently arrived at the "Jonestown" compound to find Jones dead along with hundreds of his followers, most of whom had swallowed a poison-laced soft drink.

Speier made an initial House bid in the wake of that tragedy but lost a special election primary to fill the remainder of Ryan's unexpired term. Republican Bill Royer, who won that 1979 contest, was ousted in 1980 by Lantos, a Hungarian immigrant who had fought in the anti-Nazi resistance during World War II, and his long political domination long foreclosed the House as a option for Speier. But she built a parallel political career, serving as a county supervisor, state assemblywoman and state senator, and running a strong but narrowly unsuccessful bid in 2006 to be the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor.

That track record left her well-positioned to emerge as the favorite to succeed Lantos after he announced in January that he had esophageal cancer and would not seek re-election. Lantos endorsed Speier for his House seat shortly before he died in February at age 80.

That endorsement came even though the liberal Speier had originally explored a campaign to challenge Lantos from the left. Lantos, who was chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee at the time of his death, was a fervent advocate of human rights around the world, a posture that spurred him to initially give strong support to President Bush's decision to use military force to oust Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein. That Iraq stance alienated many liberal activists from Lantos.

After receiving Lantos' blessing, Speier quickly amassed support from major Democrats in the area, including California's two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who represents the neighboring 8th District that covers most of San Francisco; Northern California Democratic Reps. Anna G. Eshoo of the 14th District and Mike Thompson of the 1st District; and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. The powerful political action committee EMILY's List, which supports Democratic women candidates who favor abortion rights, assisted her campaign.

Speier reported raising a whopping $874,000 through March 19 despite having formed her campaign committee just two months prior. None of her opponents reported more than $25,000 raised through March 19.

Speier positioned herself in the House race as a liberal reformer who hoped to shift priorities in Washington from "partisan bickering" to legislative action. She expressed her support for redeploying troops from Iraq as soon as it is feasible and argued that the economy requires significant repair because of actions taken by the Bush administration and costs tied to the war.

The expansion of health care and financial privacy rights, two issues on which she focused in the legislature, also were prominent in her campaign messages.

In addition, Speier championed a pro-environmental platform that earned her the endorsement of a local chapter of the Sierra Club.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20080409/pl_cq_politics/politics2699627 [link]