Congressional Elections

Here are the candidates running for the seats in the 39th, 41st, 47th and 48th congressional districts in the June 2 primary. The Issues The candidates were asked these questions: Abortion rights--Do you support or oppose abortion rights? Capital gains tax--Do you support cuts in the federal capital gains tax? Health plan--Do you support President Bush's national health plan, which would provide tax breaks for low- and middle-income families and slash Medicaid by $35 billion over five years?

Los Angeles on Tuesday begins a far-reaching overhaul of its city government, voting for a new mayor and controller, and voting as well for city attorney and to fill more than half the City Council and nearly half the school board and Community College District board of trustees. Nonpartisan city and school elections differ from California legislative and congressional elections, in which runoffs between the two highest vote-getters are now guaranteed. In Tuesday's election, a candidate can avoid a runoff by winning more than 50% of the vote.

Here's an Election Day scenario: The budget deadlock is unbroken, and the federal government is in its second week of shutdown. Government payments to just about everyone for just about everything have ground to a halt. Economically, everything is in free fall except gas prices. If all this were to happen, then maybe, just maybe, the "throw the bums out" sentiment would reach such a point that there might be some election-night suspense in some Westside congressional districts.

WASHINGTON - One of the key players in a special Democratic congressional primary Tuesday in Chicago comes from New York. That city's mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, is using his vast wealth to challenge a candidate running on a gun rights platform in the first election since the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. - a move that underscores his crusade to serve as a political counterweight to the National Rifle Assn. The NRA has chosen not to counter Bloomberg's ads attacking its preferred candidate, former Rep. Debbie Halvorson, and liberal Chicago districts are an imperfect test case.

From one perspective, write-in congressional candidate Hewitt Fitts Ryan is engaged in a politically difficult endeavor in an effort to get a chance to try the politically impossible. Distressed that no Democrat filed to run against Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado) this fall, Ryan--whose brother was a congressman and whose father was an acquaintance of Franklin D.

Having reaped the benefits of incumbency since 1982, Rep. Jim Bates fears that next week's election against former Navy fighter pilot Randall (Duke) Cunningham may be one in which the downside to being in office outweighs the assets. Beyond his distress over losing weeks of valuable campaign time by being stuck in Washington during the recent budget impasse, Bates (D-San Diego) also is worried about being caught up in a nationwide backlash against incumbents.

As Rep. Jim Bates seeks reelection in the 44th Congressional District, there is little surprise that the major--some might argue the only --issue in the campaign deals with Bates' reprimand by the House Ethics Committee last year on sexual harassment charges.

In a year when a lengthy political resume could be more of a liability than an asset, the 50th Congressional District race is dominated by three San Diego Democratic fixtures hoping to escape the public's growing antipathy toward career politicians. The 11-candidate field in the newly drawn 50th District is led by former Rep. Jim Bates, state Sen. Wadie Deddeh and San Diego City Councilman Bob Filner, who together have served a combined half century in local, state and national offices.

The Senate, acting in defiance of a threatened veto by President Bush, passed a Democratic campaign finance reform measure Thursday that would ban contributions by political action committees, limit election spending and provide candidates with some public funding. The 56-42 vote was the culmination of nearly two weeks of hotly partisan floor debate between Democrats and Republicans over the shape of any congressional effort to restrict special interest funding of congressional campaigns.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel would do a good job as Chicago mayor, President Obama said in an interview Thursday morning, but he predicted Emanuel's decision about whether to seek the office likely wouldn't come until after the November congressional elections. Emanuel is currently focused on his job at the White House, where there is a long to-do list at the moment, Obama said. The president's party is bracing for a tough election, with Democratic majorities in Congress at risk.

Finally, scientists have documented that spending time on Facebook isn't all about posting pictures of cute kids and running virtual farms - it can actually be useful to American society. A single election day message, sent to more than 60 million users of the social networking site, increased turnout in the November 2010 congressional election by 340,000 votes, researchers reported Wednesday. It may not sound like much, but in a close election - such as Florida's contested presidential vote in 2000 - that kind of bump could make the difference between a win and a loss, said UC San Diego social network researcher James Fowler, leader of the unusual experiment.

Days after Tuesday's primary election, four congressional and 11 Assembly races -- as well as Proposition 29, a proposed cigarette tax -- still are undecided. In most of the candidate contests, it's not yet clear who finished second -- a crucial position in the state's new "top-two" elections system. The 15 unsettled races, one of which hung by two votes Friday, represent a significant jump from the typical three or four in past elections, according to Allan Hoffenblum, who publishes the nonpartisan California Target Book of state contests.

Six months from Tuesday, Americans will reset the power equation in Washington, and not only for the presidency. Control of Congress is also at stake. In each of the last three national elections, voters opted for change, and they may be about to do so again. In 2006, they turned the House of Representatives and the Senate from Republican to Democrat. In 2008, they did the same at the White House. Then, in 2010, they flipped the House back to the Republicans. Amid a sluggish economic recovery that has yet to reach millions of Americans, the Democratic president is now a vulnerable incumbent and his party's control of the Senate is in jeopardy.  The House, at least for now, seems less likely to flip again.

The Angry Buddhist A Novel Seth Greenland Europa Editions: 400 pp., $16 paper Seth Greenland's "The Angry Buddhist" begins with two sexy American women getting matching tattoos in Puerto Vallarta - and then it swiftly jumps forward into the madcap final week of a congressional race out in the desert around Palm Springs. The incumbent, a wily and infinitely pragmatic political sleazebag named Randall Duke, finds himself facing a new kind of problem, namely, an opponent who might actually defeat him. Her name is Mary Swain, and here she is, observed at a rally by the angry Buddhist of the title, one of Randall's brothers, the busted cop called Jimmy Ray Duke: "She glides to the microphone and Jimmy notes the burnished skin, the blinding smile, the five hundred dollars' worth of blond highlights, fitted red blouse set off against the matching white linen skin and jacket that wraps her like cellophane.

Democrats suffered a stunning blow Tuesday as voters in New York's 9th Congressional District chose a novice Republican to replace disgraced Democrat Anthony Weiner in an election that became a referendum on President Obama. With more than 90% of precincts reporting, Bob Turner, a retired television executive best known for producing "The Jerry Springer Show," had 53% of the vote in unofficial returns, election officials said. Democrat Dave Weprin, a state assemblyman from a politically connected family, had 46%. Weprin did not immediately concede.

Rep. Mike Ross, one of the few conservative Democrats who survived the midterm elections of 2010, announced Monday he won't stand for reelection in 2012. In a letter announcing his decision, Ross cited the "tough political environment" he'd face in seeking a seventh term, and he bemoaned the current state of Congress. "While I have worked hard to bring folks to the middle to craft common-sense solutions to the many problems that confront our nation, Washington is mired in gridlock, gamesmanship and constant partisan bickering," he said.

Election officials voted to fine the former ruling party more than $90 million for allegedly using government funds to finance its 2000 presidential campaign. Institutional Revolutionary Party leaders vowed to appeal the fine, which could prove crippling in July congressional elections. The PRI ruled for 71 years until it lost power in 2000.

Voter registration closes Monday for the May 17 special primary election to fill a congressional seat vacated earlier this year by former Rep. Jane Harman, a Venice Democrat. Those who wish to vote by mail have until May 10 to request a ballot, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's office. Registration information and mail-in ballots are available through http://www.lavote.net or by calling (562) 466-1323. Sixteen candidates are on the ballot in the 36th Congressional District, which runs south along the coast from Venice to San Pedro and includes inland communities in Torrance and Lomita.

Bolstering their status as the presumed frontrunners in the crowded special election for a South Bay-based congressional seat, Democrats Janice Hahn and Debra Bowen have outdistanced their rivals in campaign contributions, reports filed with the Federal Election Commission showed Friday. By the March 31 close of the reporting period, Hahn had raised $274,443 and spent $103,177, while Bowen had collected $195,224 and spent $102,227. Bowen, who is California's secretary of state, and Hahn, a Los Angeles councilwoman, are vying to succeed former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice)