• Craig Huey,  Jane Harman

    CA-36: Craig Huey Will Face Janice Hahn in July Election to Replace Rep. Jane Harman?

    Hear Craig Huey explain in his own words why he can’t sit back and watch our great nation be destroyed…and why he wants to help change America’s future by representing you in Congress.

    Congrats to my friend, Craig Huey, in his run-off finish in yesterday’s California Special Congressional election (CD-36).

    Self-funding Republican Craig Huey appears to have pulled off a surprising upset Tuesday night, leapfrogging Democrat Debra Bowen to advance to a July 12 runoff in the special election to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.). He’ll face Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who finished first in the 16-candidate field.

    With all precincts reporting, Huey leads Bowen, the California secretary of state, by just 206 votes – but it’s a slim margin that will likely hang in uncertainty until more than 9,000 absentee ballots are counted. The AP has only called the race for Hahn, and not for Huey.

    Hahn led all candidates with 24.7 percent of the vote, and she was expected to face Bowen in the July runoff in the first test of the state’s first all-party primary, which entailed rules that could have allowed for two members of the same party in the multi-candidate field to advance.

    However, it was Huey, a wealthy businessman who put a half-million of his own money into his campaign and spent more than $300,000 on radio and TV ads, who pulled the upset. Neither Bowen nor Hahn had been up on television.

    Currently, Huey leads all Republicans with 21.9 percent, or 11,648 votes. Bowen trails with 21.5 percent, or 11,442 votes.

    According to a late night tweet from Los Angeles County Clerk Dean Logan, there are an estimated 9,811 ballots still to be counted, including 8,416 from people who voted by mail, 1,269 provisional ballots and 126 damaged ballots.

    I am fairly certain that Huey’s lead will hold up as the remaining ballots will trend even more Republican.

    And, I am not surprised as much as the pundits because Craig has REALLY worked the social media, is from the Congressional District (we grew up together in El Segundo), and knows how to run a campaign.

    Now, the general election race will be tough because of the overwhelming Democratic registration in this gerrymandered district and the Democrats with their union minions will go all out against Craig.

    If he moves on, Huey will face a stiff challenge against in the runoff – all Democratic candidates received a total of 56 percent of the vote. The district gave 64 percent of the vote for President Obama in 2008.

    But, Craig has established roots in the district and California’s economy, particularly this portion of Los Angeles County is in dire straights with high unemployment. Huey has established himself as a viable and CONSERVATIVE Congressional candidate.

    Whether he wins or loses in July, reapportionment redistricting is on the table with new California Congressional Districts to be announced in June. Huey may very well be a Republican force in this district for some time to come.

    Stay tuned…..

    Buy the way, Huey’s Facebook is here and can be followed on Twitter @CraigHuey.

    Previous:

    Conservative Publisher Craig Huey to Run for Rep Jane Harman’s Congressional Seat?

  • Antonio Villaraigosa,  Craig Huey,  Debra Bowen,  Jane Harman,  Janice Hahn

    Conservative Publisher Craig Huey to Run for Rep Jane Harman’s Congressional Seat?

    Craig Huey of ElectionForum.org

    I have known Craig since attending El Segundo High School in the 1960’s. He is a good friend – and consistently conservative over the decades.

    Rep. Jane Harman’s Congressional Distirct (CD-36) is tough for a Republican/conservative to run in, since the Democrats maintain an 18 point lead in registration. You know all about those gerrymandered California Congressional Districts, right?

     But, if Craig wants to run, then why not.

    A publisher of conservative election guides is considering entering the fray in the 36th Congressional District.

    Republican Craig Huey runs several websites, newsletters and forums that aim to “help Evangelical Christians vote their values,” including ElectionsForums.org and JudgeVoterGuide.org.

    Huey said local party leaders and Tea Party groups have approached him about running for the seat being vacated by Democratic Rep. Jane Harman, who plans to step down to lead the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

    “I’m talking to some people right now and getting a lot of encouragement to (run),” he said this morning.

    Huey, 60, lives just outside the district in Rolling Hills Estates, but said he might move if he decides to enter the race. He said he grew up in the area covered by the seat and runs an advertising company, Creative Direct Marketing Group, that is located in Torrance.

    Craig would be opposed by two formidable Democrats: Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn (from San Pedro) who has secured the endorsement of LA Mayor Antonio Villariagosa and Marina Del Rey resident and California Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

  • Jane Harman

    Update: California Democrat Rep. Jane Harman to Leave the House? Debra Bowen Vs. Janice Hahn

    +++++Update+++++

    Looks like two of the candidates will be California Secretary of State Debra Bowen of Marina Del Rey, who is termed out in 2014 and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn.

    Harman will likely announce her resignation tomorrow, according to sources.

    Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) is likely to resign from Congress to succeed Lee H. Hamilton as president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a close friend of Harman’s told POLITICO. The nine-term intelligence expert notified House officials of the negotiations in writing on Monday.

    The final decision is to be made by the Woodrow Wilson Center’s board on Tuesday. The center, established by Congress, is part of the Smithsonian Institution.

    Harman has represented her Los Angeles County district in the House beginning in 1993.

    She telephoned a series of colleagues on Monday morning to let them know, including House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

    Harman was preparing to send a letter to her constituents explaining her negotiations to join the Woodrow Wilson Center.

    Harman’s decision could represent, in part, the frustrations of an ambitious, accomplished Democrat who is suddenly back in the minority.

    Well, Jane Harman is a moderate Democrat (at least to California and Nancy Pelosi standards) who will be redistricted next year, has limited prospects to run for California statewide office (she ran once for Governor and got nowhere, losing to Gray Davis in the 1998 Democrat Primary), richer than God and sees no prospect that the Democrats will be in the House majority anytime soon.

    So, why not bail?

    Her seat will be filled by a special election, but I wonder if the new top two law law will apply to this special election?

    Update #1:

    Yep, as Chris Cillizza points out it will be the first time the new California primary election rules will be applied. Therefore, look for many Democratic candidates.

  • Jane Harman

    California Democrat Rep. Jane Harman to Leave the House?

    Harman will likely announce her resignation tomorrow, according to sources.

    Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) is likely to resign from Congress to succeed Lee H. Hamilton as president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a close friend of Harman’s told POLITICO. The nine-term intelligence expert notified House officials of the negotiations in writing on Monday.

     

    The final decision is to be made by the Woodrow Wilson Center’s board on Tuesday. The center, established by Congress, is part of the Smithsonian Institution.

    Harman has represented her Los Angeles County district in the House beginning in 1993.

    She telephoned a series of colleagues on Monday morning to let them know, including House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).

    Harman was preparing to send a letter to her constituents explaining her negotiations to join the Woodrow Wilson Center.

    Harman’s decision could represent, in part, the frustrations of an ambitious, accomplished Democrat who is suddenly back in the minority.

    Well, Jane Harman is a moderate Democrat (at least to California and Nancy Pelosi standards) who will be redistricted next year, has limited prospects to run for California statewide office (she ran once for Governor and got nowhere, losing to Gray Davis in the 1998 Democrat Primary), richer than God and sees no prospect that the Democrats will be in the House majority anytime soon.

    So, why not bail?

    Her seat will be filled by a special election, but I wonder if the new top two law law will apply to this special election?

    Update:

    Yep, as Chris Cillizza points out it will be the first time the new California primary election rules will be applied. Therefore, look for many Democratic candidates.

  • CIA,  Jane Harman,  Nancy Pelosi,  Peter Hoekstra

    Speaker Nancy Pelosi Changes Story on Waterboarding and CIA Enhanced Interrogation

    pelosi and harman

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrat Represenative Jane Harman each received briefings on interrogation techniques used on Al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah.

    Flap thought Speaker Nancy Pelosi denied she was EVER informed that waterboarding and other CIA enhanced techniques were used?

    Judging by Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress who were informed at the time, the answer seems to be yes. In December 2007, after a report in The Post that she had knowledge of these procedures and did not object, she admitted that she’d been “briefed on interrogation techniques the administration was considering using in the future.”

    Today Pelosi protests “we were not — I repeat — were not told that waterboarding or any other of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used.” She imagines that this distinction between past and present, Clintonian in its parsing, is exonerating.

    On the contrary. It is self-indicting. If you are told about torture that has already occurred, you might justify silence on the grounds that what’s done is done and you are simply being used in a post-facto exercise to cover the CIA’s rear end. The time to protest torture, if you really are as outraged as you now pretend to be, is when the CIA tells you what it is planning to do “in the future.”

    But Pelosi did nothing. No protest. No move to cut off funding. No letter to the president or the CIA chief or anyone else saying “Don’t do it.”

    Now, Speaker Pelosi’s story is changing again or should Flap say the story is being parsed.

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi learned in early 2003 that the Bush administration was waterboarding terror detainees but didn’t protest directly out of respect for “appropriate” legislative channels, a confidant of the San Francisco Democrat said Monday.

    The Pelosi camp’s version of events is intended to answer two key questions posed by her critics: When, precisely, did she first learn about waterboarding? And why didn’t she do more to stop it?

    Pelosi has disputed a CIA document, released last week, that shows she was briefed in September 2002 on the “particular” interrogation techniques the United States had used on Al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah. Pelosi has said she was told then only that the Bush administration was considering using certain techniques in the future — and that it had the legal authority to do so.

    But there’s no dispute that on Feb. 4, 2003 — five months after Pelosi’s September meeting — CIA officials briefed Pelosi aide Michael Sheehy and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), then the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, on the specific techniques that had been used on Zubaydah — including waterboarding.

    Harman was so alarmed by what she had heard, she drafted a short letter to the CIA’s general counsel to express “profound” concerns with the tactic — going so far as to ask if waterboarding had been personally “approved by the president.”

    According to the Pelosi confidant, Sheehy told Pelosi about the briefing — and later informed Pelosi, the newly elected minority leader, that Harman was drafting a protest letter. Pelosi told Sheehy to tell Harman that she agreed with the letter, the Pelosi insider said. But she did not ask to be listed as a signatory on the letter, the source said, and there is no reference to her in it.

    The fact is Nancy Pelosi did NOTHING about waterboarding. She did NOT sign Congresswoman’s Jane Harman’s letter. Hell, she didn’t even LEAK it to the Washington Post. So, now why is the Speaker so outraged at enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA when she was in fact at least partially complicit by her inaction?

    As Republican Congressman Peter Hoekstra (the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee) said:

    “If Nancy was so concerned about the waterboarding, why did she let someone else write the letter?” asked Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the intelligence committee. “If she was so upset, why did she let someone else raise objections?”

    As I have said before, lets have the Obama Administration and CIA release all of the documents and have open, public, televised Congressional Hearings. The American people deserve the truth, not Obama Administration spin and stonewalling.

    Put Speaker Pelosi under oath, the lights, on television and ask her the questions about what she knew and when she knew about the CIA enhanced interrogation techniques. Ask her why she is so outraged today after the fact while she wouldn’t even sign Harman’s letter?

    Enough of the BAD lies and deception. Congressional hearings – let’s go.

    Previous:

    Former Senator Bob Graham: I Don’t Have Recollection of Being Briefed on Waterboarding

    What Did Speaker Nancy Pelosi Know and When Did She Know it? Re: CIA Enhanced Interrogation Techniques and Waterboarding

    Nancy Pelosi on CIA Torture? – NO. Except…

    Waterboarding: What Did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Know and When Did She Know It?


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