News from California's 12th District: Democrat Jackie Speier has won the special election to succeed the late Rep. Tom Lantos. She earned 78% of the vote, a clear majority which enabled her to win the seat outright in what was technically a special-election primary.
Speier will now be favored to win the general-election primary in this overwhelmingly Democratic district, and is poised to serve as the 12th District's Representative for some time.
For those unfamiliar with Jackie Speier, she has been a prominent figure in California politics for thirty years, since surviving the infamous Jonestown massacre in 1978:
The special election victory will 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.
Speier has endorsed Hillary Clinton (as had Lantos, before he passed away), so Clinton will get one superdelegate back.
Meanwhile, in Texas' 22nd District, the Republicans have resoundingly discarded their former Representative Shelley Sekula-Gibbs in a primary runoff election. It will be Pete Olson, a former lieutenant to Senator John Cornyn, who gets to take on incumbent Democrat Nick Lampson in what is considered one of the GOP's few real pickup opportunities.
With over 49 percent of precincts reporting, Olson was beating Sekula Gibbs, 68 percent to 32 percent. Olson's victory was built on a strong performance in early voting and winning margins in the the 22nd district's three largest counties: Fort Bend, Harris and Brazoria.
Olson's campaign was heavily backed by House GOP leaders and most of the Texas House Republican delegation, as well as his former employers, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and ex-Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas).
The winner of Tuesday's contest will face Rep. Nick Lampson (D) in November. The suburban Houston 22nd district is solid Republican territory, and GOP insiders believe an Olson victory in Tuesday's contest should seal Lampson's fate in the general election.
Sekula-Gibbs led the 10-candidate primary with 30% of the vote to Olson's 21%. It seems that virtually everyone who voted for another candidate in the primary went to Olson, which says a lot about the former Congresswoman.
Olson's victory really is a darn shame, on a number of levels. Sekula-Gibbs' brief tenure in Congress made her a national object of ridicule. Her support in the district is evidently severely limited, and she inspires little faith in her party (just about every Texas Republican with a pulse endorsed Olson). And Lampson already beat her once last year.
Olson, a career political professional, will be a much tougher candidate, and likely will not provide the...er, colorful highlights we could have expected from a Sekula-Gibbs candidacy. He'll be a formidable opponent in a strongly Republican district (R+14.5). Recent trends in the area have been good for Democrats, and Lampson is a good fit for his district, so I think he has a good shot at being reelected.
It certainly won't be easy, though.