This is a tough district but the California economy is poor and Janice Hahn has political baggage from her tenure on the Los Angeles City Council.

My friend, Craig, has a definite shot at this race, despite the overwhelming Democratic registration against him.

So, PLEASE visit his website, contribute and volunteer.

Guess Craig Huey is too smart to take the bait.

Councilwoman Janice Hahn won a strategic victory during her Congressional primary with a pledge of support for Israel. Secretary of State Debra Bowen signed it within two hours, perhaps sealing her defeat.

Hahn’s campaign must have figured that if it worked once, why not try it again. On Memorial Day, Hahn sent a pledge to her general election opponent, conservative marketing guy Craig Huey, calling for upgrades in veterans’ health care and an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Huey has handled it a little differently than Bowen did. His campaign didn’t respond until today. The answer: Buzz off with your stupid pledge.

“It’s a stunt on her part,” said Jimmy Camp, Huey’s campaign manager. “We’re not as gullible as Debra Bowen was. Our issues are our issues and we’re not going to let her frame what we have to say.”Camp also said that Huey’s campaign hadn’t actually received the pledge, except via Twitter. “We don’t respond to tweets,” he said.

Is Janice Hahn that desperate or does she REALLY think Craig Huey is as stupid as Debra Bowen?

Perhaps or the CA-36 may be completely different in party registration demographics.

When the independent redistricting commission redraws political lines this summer, experts say it’s likely that the 36th will lose its strongly Democratic northern region around the Los Angeles International Airport. In return, the district could regain the Republican-majority Palos Verdes Peninsula.

To protect incumbent Democratic Rep. Jane Harman, who resigned in February to lead a Washington think tank, the Peninsula was sliced off the district 10 years ago and connected by thin slivers of Long Beach and San Pedro to Rep. Dana Rohrbacher’s Orange County-based 46th Congressional District.

Besides a shifting border, there’s also a second scenario, where most of the current 36th District’s territory is collapsed, possibly into the 37th Congressional District of Rep. Laura Richardson, a Long Beach Democrat who represents Carson.

Such a move could be a way to account for the population shift to Riverside and San Bernardino counties in the 2010 U.S. census, according to Fernando Guerra, director of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.

“In other words, L.A. County has to lose one seat,” Guerra said.

The nonpartisan California Citizens Redistricting Commission is set to issue draft maps on June 10, before the July election, setting up an awkward possibility for Hahn and Huey.

“You literally may be running for a seat that no longer exists,” Guerra said.

Final maps are due Aug. 15, and the first election reflecting the reapportioned boundaries will be the June 2012 primary.

If Harman’s old district does pick up the Palos Verdes Peninsula, surrendering the area around LAX, the change would be enough to make an incumbent’s path to election uncertain.

In 1998, when the Peninsula was a part of the 36th District, voters sent Republican Steve Kuykendall to the office.

The Democrat who lost?

Hahn, who ran for the seat to replace Harman when the congresswoman made a failed bid for California governor.

The California economy is very poor and especially poor in this area of Los Angeles County. Businesses have closed and moved out of the state. Real estate values have plummeted. And, most importantly, the election turnout will be low due to the July election date. This will favor an “outside” candidate and one who can turn out the GOP in the district.

Craig Huey has a definite chance in July to surprise and certainly again in 2012, if he doesn’t.

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office released the final results today for the special Congressional Election to fill retiring Democrat Rep. Jane Harman’s 36th Congressional District seat.

The results are here.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, a Democrat, was the top vote-getter with 15,647 votes, 24.6 percent, and was followed by Republican canidate Craig Huey, who had 14,116, 22.2 percent. The top two vote-getters advance to a runoff election if no one receives more than 50 percent of the vote, so Hahn and Huey will face off in a July 12 special election.

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen finished in third with 13,407 votes, 21.1 percent, and was 709 votes behind Huey.

The election drew a wide field of candidates that included five Democrats, six Republicans, a Peace and Freedom, a Libertarian and three candidates who stated no party preference. The candidates were vying to replace longtime Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), who resigned in February to join a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The 36th Congressional District includes Marina del Rey, Venice, Mar Vista, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and surrounding communities.

Huey, a Torrance businessman and tea party candidate who lives outside the district in Rolling Hills Estates, surprised election watchers late Tuesday night when he overtook Bowen as the final precincts were counted and took a 206-vote lead. The registrar’s office counted more than 10,000 ballots Thursday and Huey increased his lead over Bowen, prompting her to concede defeat.

It is expected to be a tough race for Republican/Libertaran Huey since the Congressional District is overwhelmingly Democratic in registration. But, turnout is also expected to be low and Huey is well known in conservative circles in the district.

Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan said there were 64,183 total votes cast in the election and 35,183, 54.8 percent, were vote by mail ballots and 29,000, 45.2 percent, were cast at precinct polling stations. Voter turnout for the election was 18.6 percent, which is lower than the 2010 primary turnout of 27 percent.

Craig, a high school friend of mine from El Segundo and the owner of a Torrance marketing/PR business is expected to give Hahn a tough campaign.

Stay tuned….

The long knives are already out for Craig Huey on this ridiculous attempt to portray Craig as some sort of nutter.

Even before the results of California’s special House jungle primary have been certified, Democrats are already bringing out the knives for surprise second-place finishing tea party candidate Craig Huey.

Huey, who finished just ahead of Secretary of State Debra Bowen to advance to the July runoff, penned a letter nine years ago that inferred opponents of a church expansion were working at the behest of Satan.

In the December 2002 letter to his neighboring Rolling Hill Estates residents obtained by POLITICO, Huey explains he supports the expansion of a local church “to expand the positive influence of the Gospel throughout the Hill.”

But he also warned that a “small group of organized lawyers and residents” were exaggerating fears to “cast doubt” on the project.

“I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised,” Huey wrote.  “Throughout history Satan has stirred up opposition to God’s purposes and plans.  It reminds me of Nehemiah in the Bible.  You’ll recall how he faces intense opposition to God’s work.”

When the city council later voted against the church’s expansion, he called it “pure religious discrimination.”

Well, I will await Craig’s official response but there really is nothing there. But, the Far Left in California like to demonize their opponents.

The LEFT and unions know that Craig who is native to CA-36 will mount a solid campaign against the failed policies of California Democrats and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with whom Councilwoman Hahn is aligned.