Following up on Steve's post on Jane Harman's pending resignation from the House of Representatives, allow me to further underscore the ideological stakes in the coming special election.
Harman’s district is the deep-blue California 36th, boasting a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+12. Despite this, she is one of the few remaining Blue Dogs in the House of Representatives. While redistricting looms on the horizon, it would not take place before what would likely be a Spring special election. Further, Harman was actually primaried from the left in 2010 by Marcy Winograd, who received a respectable 41.2% of the vote.
As such, Harman’s likely resignation presents a strong pickup opportunity for House Progressives. In fact, if Progressives (capitalized since it refers to the congressional Progressive Caucus, rather than to the ideological label) want to build real power in the House, being able to win open seat races in districts like CA-36 is a necessity. If Progressives can't pull off a win in a district like this, it will significantly reduce their prospects for doing so in a wider range of districts with more closely balanced partisan compositions in the 2012 general election.
The Democratic primary for this special election will not have a big national profile, but there is still a lot at stake. This is the first act in what promises to be a wave of ideologically contested Democratic primaries over the next eighteen months, and will go a long way to determining what sort of Democrats challenge the dozens of vulnerable House Republicans in 2012.