California is threatening to be interesting this primary cycle:
Looks like former Peninsula state Sen. Jackie Speier is indeed gearing up for what promises to be a big-money and highly charged Democratic primary run next June against 13-term Rep. Tom Lantos.
"It's Time!" declares an e-mail circulated by supporters to "friends" and "fans" this past week, announcing the first organizing meeting of the Jackie Speier for Congress Exploratory Committee on Tuesday at a home in Hillsborough.
Speier has been consulting with friends and supporters about a run since a poll conducted by allies in January showed her a 2-1 favorite among voters in the 12th Congressional District, which covers northern San Mateo County and parts of San Francisco.
Speier has since hired at least one staffer to start gearing up. Nonetheless, she told us late Friday that she hasn't made a final decision - and that when she does, we'll be among the first to know.
"The good news is Congressman Lantos has finally come back to the district," she said, a digging reference to his trip home this week for the holidays and to attend a congressional subcommittee hearing on the Coast Guard's role in the big bay oil spill.
Challenge or not, Lantos, who will turn 80 in February, said through his spokeswoman: "I fully expect to win the primary in June and the general election next November.
The word is that Lantos' constituent service is atrocious. His daughter is the execrable Lieberdem Katrina Swett. He voted to condemn MoveOn, and approaches Lieberman-levels of war support. To wit, :
Dutch lawmakers who visited the Guantanamo Bay military prison this week said they were offended by a testy exchange in Washington with a senior congressional Democrat.
The lawmakers said that Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told them that "Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay." [...]
Before the Guantanamo exchange, the lawmakers had discussed a debate in the Netherlands about whether the country should maintain its 1,600 troops serving in NATO's Afghanistan operations.
"You have to help us, because if it was not for us you would now be a province of Nazi Germany," Lantos said, according to the Dutch lawmakers.
And Lantos is not a spry 80 years old, either. Running a grueling race against a well-known and -liked primary opponent might be too taxing. On the other hand, Lantos is the lone Holocaust survivor serving in Congress, he's fairly liberal on anything not war related, and he's been a fixture in the district for decades. There's also a strong possibility that state Sen. Leland Yee runs if Speier gets in as a blocking move.
Here's the thing for Yee, if he doesn't run and then Jackie wins, the seat is out of play for another 20 years. If Lantos wins, then he can run in an open seat whenever Lantos retires. While it's not totally clear how he would affect the race, I think it's almost a no-brainer for Yee if Speier enters.
So again, this bit of news threatens to add some drama into the California primary (along with the wingnut primary in CA-04, whether or not corrupt Rep. John Doolittle retires as rumored).