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While talking to a staffer in DC, I found out that John Garamendi will be holding an open house at his new office in Walnut Creek tomorrow. This could be an opportunity to ask polite questions of our new representative in the 10th district about what our Congress has planned for our nation. Walnut Creek, CA office 1981 N Broadway Ste 220 Walnut Creek, CA 94596 Phone: (925) 932-8899 Fax: (925) 932-8159

In the strange world of politics, where up is down and down is up, Republicans tout as a victory David Harmer's 10-point loss to Democrat John Garamendi in Tuesday's special congressional race. With an 18-point party registration advantage, off-the-charts name identification and double the cash of his opponent, Republicans say Garamendi should have won with a far bigger margin. "Harmer winning 43 percent of the vote in an overwhelmingly Democratic district in the Bay Area does not speak well for the Democrats," California GOP Chairman Ron Nehring said the morning after Tuesday's election. Yes, this is largely spin. Harmer outperformed...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi has won a special election to a Northern California congressional seat, keeping the district in Democratic hands. Garamendi's victory on Tuesday was all but certain after he won the September primary election because Democrats enjoy an 18-point registration edge over Republicans in the 10th Congressional District. He easily defeated Republican David Harmer, a 47-year-old attorney.

While press and pundits focus almost ad nauseum on what will happen Tuesday in New York's 23rd Congressional District, as well as the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, everyone has forgotten the battle being waged for the California congressional seat vacated by Ellen Tauscher when she resigned to become a member of President Obama's State Department. To be sure, the 10th Congressional District of the Golden State is a Democratic stronghold, especially after some recent gerrymandering. The latest poll shows Democratic candidate and current Lt. Gov. John Garamendi with a commanding 10-point lead over Republican challenger David Harmer,...

David Harmer, the Republican candidate for Congress in California's special election in their 10th congressional election, does have a chance of winning this election today. While running in a district which has not elected a Republican in decades, their last Congresswoman easily claimed victory with near 70% of the vote, and it is rated D+11, does not seem possible. Then again, 2009 has not been a normal election year...

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- John Garamendi, California's lieutenant governor and the favorite to win one of the two open U.S. House seats Tuesday, has been well known for decades as one of Sacramento's relentless promoters of liberal issues. California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi campaigns for an open U.S. House seat Saturday outside San Francisco. Now, the man who always wanted to be governor of California vows to be a team player on the national stage if he wins a special election in a heavily Democratic district outside San Francisco. Absent a major upset, Mr. Garamendi will be sworn in to...

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi has been everything from assemblyman to insurance commissioner to former President Bill Clinton's deputy interior secretary during his 35 years in public service. If the prevailing political wisdom is correct, the 64-year-old Democratic veteran could add U.S. congressman to his résumé by Tuesday night. Garamendi is considered the clear front-runner in the race to fill the 10th Congressional District seat left vacant in June by Ellen Tauscher, who became the State Department's undersecretary for arms control and international security affairs. Democrats make up 47 percent of the district's registered voters compared with the 29 percent of...

Mark Endorses David Harmer for Congress Monday, October 26th, 2009 HarmerForCongress.com (CA. 10th Congressional) http://www.harmerforcongress.com/default.htm

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a fixture in state and national politics for 35 years, is expected to maintain the Democratic Party's hold Tuesday on a congressional seat that stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay area through the California delta. <snip> Garamendi's Republican opponent, David Harmer, has been campaigning against excessive government spending. It's unclear how widely that theme will resonate in a congressional district that supported Barack Obama with nearly 65 percent of the vote in last year's presidential race.

East Bay voters on Tuesday will select a new member of Congress, and determine the fate of upscale downtown development in Walnut Creek and a host of school and other measures. Slightly more than half of Contra Costa and Alameda county voters live in cities or other political districts with an election, including those in the vacant 10th congressional district, San Ramon and Walnut Creek. <snip> The highest-profile race is undeniably the runoff to replace Ellen Tauscher in the 10th congressional district. Two-thirds of the heavily Democratic district is in Contra Costa, with smaller segments in Alameda, Solano and Sacramento...

A new CBS 5 poll released Thursday showed Democrat John Garamendi remained the favorite in the special election for California's 10th Congressional District seat. The poll's results also found that half of the expected votes in the race have already been cast. With five days until votes are counted, the poll conducted for CBS 5 by SurveryUSA showed Garamendi defeating Republican David Harmer by 10 percentage points.

LATEST RALLY DRAWS OVER 1,000+ IN LIBERAL SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA (ON THE ROAD IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA) - Crowds continue to build as the Tea Party Express II: Countdown to Judgment Day (www.TeaPartyExpress.org) gains momentum! Yesterday in the very liberal San Francisco Bay Area, more than 1,000 people turned out to show their support for smaller government, less deficit-spending, and opposition to government-run healthcare. The rally held particular importance as a Special Election for Congress takes place on November 3rd in California's 10th Congressional District. Conservative candidate for Congress, David Harmer, spoke at the event. The Tea Party Express II...

A special general election next Tuesday for a vacant U.S. Congress seat in the East Bay pits California's Democratic lieutenant governor against a Republican son of a former lieutenant governor. Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a Democrat, is facing David Harmer, the son of former state senator and Lt. Gov. John Harmer, in the election for the state's 10th Congressional District

A source close to Republican congressional candidate David Harmer tells me he will be on Mark Levin's show on Friday, scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Eastern, noting that Levin endorsed Harmer and put a link on his website. There's also word that Mitt Romney wants to make a call for Harmer to his Bay Area supporters this weekend.

<snip> Harmer then recognized the GOP's big image problem - that talk is cheap. "We can't talk our way out of the problems we behaved our way into." He has found a way to reflect conservative values and pragmatism. This summer Harmer told The Chronicle that he had "no interest" in motivating the GOP base and "alienating everyone else." He meant it. At the debate, Harmer actually asked his more vocal supporters in the audience, who turned out in high numbers, to refrain from making noise during the questions and answers. <snip> Instead they showcased their very different views on...

All political races are not created equal. While every office is special is its own right, certain elections matter more than others. The David Harmer (R) v. John Garamendi (D) 10th Congressional District special election on November 3, 2009 is one of those races. The Harmer Race matters because of (1) what it means to the Country, (2) what it means to California, and (3) what it means to California Republicans.

John Garamendi hates insurance companies, insurance agents, Steve Poizner, policy holders and Northern California. Witness how his insurance regulations were aimed at making Northern Califonria subsidize Southern California - witness his idioc handling of executive life's collapse where thousands of policyholders lost their life's savings. Now Garamendi is carving out a new niche of stupidity and is stooping to new political depths. He sent out an attack ad against David Harmer - which also happens to be the name of his opponent in the CD-10 runoff. Problem: Which David Harmer was that anyway?

The five candidates seeking to represent the 10th Congressional District break down into a group of three on the left and two on the right as revealed in a forum at Saint Mary's College on Monday night. Ranging from political left to right are: self-described socialist Mary McIlroy from El Cerrito of the Peace and Freedom Party; Jeremy Cloward from Pleasant Hill of the Green Party; liberal Democrat John Garamendi from Walnut Grove; conservative Republican David Harmer, a San Ramon resident; and libertarian Jerry Denham from Walnut Creek, representing the American Independent Party. <snip> Garamendi joined with McIlroy and Cloward...

Political junkies everywhere are glued to what's going on in New York's 23rd congressional district, that upstate special election for a seat that hasn't gone Democratic since there has been a Republican Party. But the GOP candidate there is in real jeopardy, and in fact some speculate that she could finish third in a field of three. (See yesterday's post.) Less attention -- far less attention -- is being placed on the other special congressional election that will be decided on Tuesday. That's in California's 10th District, necessitated when Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D) resigned to take a post in the...

David Harmer is trying to do in California what Doug Hoffman is trying to do in New York: win a seat in the House of Representatives which otherwise would be won by a liberal in a special election. Ellen Tauscher, who represented the 10th Congressional District of California since 1996, has resigned her seat in Congress to be an undersecretary in the Obama Administration. The special election on November 3, 2009 will determine who replaces her. <snip> What makes this all the more galling is that David Harmer has at least as good a chance of winning in California as...