Jackie Speier-D prepares to go to Washington (Special Election CA-12)

[CreekDog]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(04-08) 21:35 PDT Burlingame -- It took 29 years, but Jackie Speier is on her way to Congress.

The former state senator took a huge early lead Tuesday night in the race to finish the term of the late Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos and never looked back, collecting more than the 50 percent plus one vote needed to put her on a flight to Washington, D.C., this morning.

"I'm looking at this room at people I've known for my entire legislative life," Speier said as she waited to give her victory speech at the Machinists Union Hall in Burlingame. "This is one of those moments in my life."

In 1979, Speier was recovering from the near-fatal bullet wounds she received at an airstrip in Jonestown, Guyana, where she was shot and left for dead by followers of the Rev. James Jones. Those same attackers killed her boss, Rep. Leo Ryan.

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The contest to fill the few remaining months of Lantos' term had little suspense. Speier was the odds-on favorite to finish on top in the five-candidate race that listed everyone on the same ballot, regardless of party.

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That's probably the best that Republicans Greg Conlon and Mike Moloney, Democrat Michelle McMurry and Green Party candidate Barry Hermanson could hope for. Democrats outnumber Republicans in the district, 51 percent to 20 percent, and the 57-year-old Speier has represented much of the area for more than 20 years as a San Mateo County supervisor, assemblywoman and state senator.

The runoff question was settled in a hurry. Speier pulled 80 percent of the vote by mail ballots in San Mateo County and 69 percent in San Francisco. With the mail ballots expected to make up more than half the total in each county, the suspense ended quickly.

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Just two weeks before his death in February, Lantos endorsed Speier as his successor, calling her a "first-class public servant who has made the community's most pressing priorities her own."

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Speier plans to fly to Washington, D.C., this morning and be sworn into office Thursday. She will immediately take her seat in Congress.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/08/BAC11025NU.DTL&tsp=1

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The results show Dems received 83% and Reps received 15%. Nice district! :hi:

JACKIE SPEIER (DEM) 37,658 79.4%
GREG CONLON (REP) 4,545 9.6%
MIKE MOLONEY (REP) 2,585 5.5%
MICHELLE T. MCMURRY (DEM) 1,815 3.8%
BARRY HERMANSON (GRN) 797 1.7%

http://www.shapethefuture.org/elections/april2008/documents/United_States_House_of_Representatives,_California_District_12.jpg

[Hekate]

1. KnR. Go Jackie!

:toast:

[frebrd]

2. K&R n/m

[aquart]

3. May all the bad be behind you, Jackie.

[David__77]

4. I'm pleased with her election.

She is well-suited to this district and will do a good job.

[sasquatch]

5. I wonder what she'll do about cults and fundies at home?

:shrug:

[SpiralHawk]

6. Cults? Hmmm - I'll be she will be civil to the republicon homelanders

and other cults...

[sasquatch]

7. Haha. But seriously though, we do have a problem with cults in this country.

[Zynx]

9. They are protected by the Constitution so long as they don't engage in criminal behavior.

[ronnykmarshall]

8. She's always been a favorite of mine.

She's had a very tough personal life. Jackie's going to be a great congresswoman.

[samsingh]

10. excellent