Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin said Wednesday he will enter the race to succeed former Rep. Jane Harman, joining City Attorney Mike Webb as the only other Republican thus far vying for the seat.
Gin served two terms as a Redondo Beach councilman prior to becoming mayor. He earned a second and final mayoral term in 2009.
Gin also works for Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe as a field deputy to San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor Gateway and the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
In his announcement, he touted Redondo Beach's budget, which has been balanced or run a surplus each year since he first won office in 1995.
"I've helped manage Redondo Beach the way I believe our country should be managed," Gin said. "I remain a tight-fisted fiscal administrator who believes in controlling spending and reducing our deficit in conjunction with creating good jobs in a new economy. This lies at the very center of what our national resurgence requires."
The coastal 36th Congressional District runs from Venice to San Pedro and was drawn to favor Democrats, who currently outnumber Republicans by a 2-to-1 margin.
But Gin said his appeal to "numerous demographic and geographic voting groups" - he is pro-choice and openly gay - combined with an expanding Democratic field of candidates and a large number of decline-to-state voters give him an opportunity to score an upset. Decline-to-state voters account for about 24 percent of the electorate in the 36th Congressional District.
Democrats Janice Hahn, a Los Angeles city councilwoman from San Pedro, and California Secretary of State Debra Bowen of Marina del Rey, are expected to engage in a rough battle for party voters. Anti-war activist and high school teacher Marcy Winograd of Santa Monica, who took 41 percent of the vote in June's Democratic primary against Harman, announced on Saturday that she would run.
Gin entering the race creates a potentially awkward political situation in Redondo Beach.
Webb has already listed the endorsements of four Redondo Beach city council members: Steve Aspel, Pat Aust, Steve Diels and Matt Kilroy. On Wednesday, Gin also claimed the endorsements of Aust and Kilroy. Council seats are nonpartisan.
A special election is expected to be held in June to replace Harman, who resigned Monday to lead a Washington think tank.
Leave a comment