Harman positioned to run statewide (DiFi's successor?)

The Hill ^ | 10/21/05 | Peter Savodnik

[NormsRevenge]

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) insists she has no plans to run statewide anytime soon, but it’s conventional wisdom in Washington and California that her centrist voting record and leadership spot on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence make her a prime candidate to succeed Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

The announcement that she had launched a political action committee, SecureUS, earlier this month only fueled the speculation.

So far, however, Harman is not biting.

“What I’m trying to do is make my best contribution for taking back the agenda in the House of Representatives and the Senate,” Harman said yesterday between votes on the House floor.

That means, Harman said, educating Democrats about security issues and honing the party’s message. Harman added that SecureUS has raised $145,000 and that many Democratic candidates have approached her seeking support.

“I don’t want to reveal names,” said Harman, who sports a red, white and blue B-2 broach. “A number of incumbents and challengers, very impressive people, both for the House and Senate, have come to me. They are names you would absolutely know.”

Does she ever ponder running for the Senate or giving the governor’s mansion another shot?

“I think Dianne Feinstein should stay [in the Senate] for many more years,” Harman said. “She’s highly productive, and I’m a very close friend of hers.”

As Democrats are quick to note, Harman is not averse to statewide campaigns. In 1998, she ran unsuccessfully for governor. There was rampant speculation in 2003 that she might run in the special recall election and this year that she might run for governor in 2006.

“She’s a mainstream Democrat, so I think she’d be a strong candidate,” said Joe Shumate, a San Francisco-based GOP consultant. Shumate noted that Harman and Feinstein have employed the same political consultant, Bill Carrick. Kam Kuwata, Feinstein’s campaign manager, also ran Harman’s gubernatorial bid.

For now, there are few openings in sight. Most leading Democrats have already rallied around state Treasurer Phil Angelides’s 2006 gubernatorial bid; the 72-year-old Feinstein, despite persistent rumors of possible retirement plans, has shown few, if any, signs of stepping down. She also has a little more than $5 million in her war chest.

“She called me the other day and specifically asked me to accompany her throughout Northern California on a campaign tour,” Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) said of the state’s senior senator.

But many Democrats have privately acknowledged that they had hoped Feinstein would retire when she is up for reelection next year, even as they lavish praise on the senator. Thompson said he expects that there are 53 would-be senators in California’s 53-member House delegation. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) agreed that most every member of the California delegation would like to run statewide.

Names of Democratic potential statewide candidates that are often bandied about, besides Harman, include Reps. Loretta Sanchez and Ellen Tauscher. Republicans include Reps. Darrell Issa and Mary Bono.

Tauscher yesterday refused to discuss any possible statewide run, saying it would be irresponsible to speculate. But even the Bay Area congresswoman indirectly recognized just how popular Harman is statewide; Tauscher added that she’s known as the “Jane Harman of the north.”

Republicans said next month’s vote on four ballot measures, which is being viewed as a referendum on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) tenure, would likely affect the state’s political topography for years to come.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), a key supporter of one of those measures, Proposition 77, which would change the state’s redistricting process, called the ballot measures critical to the state’s political future.

Kuwata, Feinstein’s campaign manager and Harman’s former campaign manager, suggested Harman, like all House members, would face an uphill struggle if and when she runs statewide, given that the local news in California pays little attention to what takes place inside the Beltway, a reference to Harman’s stature on the intelligence panel.

“As long as Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer want to be U.S. senators, no one in the Democratic Party — and, for that matter, probably no one in the Republican Party — can touch them,” he said. “But there are any number of extraordinary people who would love to be in the United States Senate and probably have some desire, and I would put Congresswoman Harman in that category.”

Harman, meanwhile, sounds like nearly every House member when pressed about a Senate bid, downplaying her ambitions, if any, and focusing on the work at hand.

Asked whether she would run if there were a statewide opening, Harman replied: “There is an opening statewide. It’s called governor, and I’m not running for it. I did my best. I tried to do that. I have returned to national issues. And I feel I’m very productive here.”

“You know, it would be a great aspiration,” she added. “But I have no plans to do it.”

[DumpsterDiver]

I didn't vote for her when she's run for Congress and I won't vote for her if she runs for the Senate.

Immigration Voting Report Card for Rep. Jane Harman
OVERALL GRADES a/o Oct 2005
Career: D+
Recent: F-

[markman46]

Oh man I hope not she is almost as dumb as Boxer

[NormsRevenge]

Hey, you don't want a set of unbalanced bookends representing California, now do you? ;-)

[CyberAnt]

The problem is the GOP cannot come up with a conservative candidate strong enough to take on the DiFi territory - SF - where it's easy for DiFi to win the whole state just from that pocket of voters = the gay community.