Like every two years, there are 435 congressional races around the country this election season. But of all the races, the New York Times decided to write about the race happening right here, in the 15th Congressional District, on Monday.
It's easy to see why the Times would find the race between longtime congressman Pete Stark and Dublin City Councilman Eric Swalwell compelling for a national audience.
The 80-year-old Stark has been in congress longer than Swalwell has been alive and is considered one of the most liberal representatives in the country.
Also, Stark and Swalwell are both Democrats, and the Times used the race to take a look at California's new primary system, which allows the top-two performers in the primary to face each other in the general election.
“I wouldn’t have had a chance before,” Swalwell told the Times about the new primary system.
Stark, who won the June primary, would probably win easily in November if he was pitted against a Republican, considering that the district — which stretches from San Ramon to Fremont — has more registered Democrats than Republicans.
But a victory this year isn't a guarantee, since Republicans in the district might be more inclined to vote for the relatively moderate Swalwell compared to the liberal Stark.
The Times wrote:
In an example of how many of these voters could vote against the liberal Mr. Stark, one older man answered his door and closed it quickly, though not before saying curtly, “I’m a Tea Partyer — I’m voting for you.”
“What we’ve noticed is candidates in California playing to a wider ideological audience as a result of the top-two primary, instead of tailoring their message to a very narrow base,” said David Wasserman to the Times, who follows House races for the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan newsletter.
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We're probably better off staying with the "devil we know" until Livermore is gerrymandered back out of this district and placed into a district where we are better represented and actually have a candidate FROM Livermore representing us.
Swalwell, on the other hand, may have grown up being groomed for political office. He went to law school and after graduation went to work for the Alameda County District Attorney's Office. He seems to be taking more of the "Tom Orloff" approach to politicial office than working in the private sector. His only elected office at this time seems to be the Dublin City Council, pretty much his part-time job. When I look at this election, all I see here is that we have two careerists after the same job. One that has held it for 40 years and may need to be replaced, and one who is seeking this job and may be looking to hold it for 40 years himself. We might as well just cast our ballots for Satan and Mephistopheles for who should run Hell during the next term. The results would be just the same for Livermore--after the election we would be gerrymandered out of this district and put into another.
And if that happens, it will also upset the lop-sided stranglehold on California politics that the northern California Democrats seem to have both in Sacramento and in Washington, DC. So what we have been seeing in-between each election is the delicate re-districting of Livermore, either one ZIP Code (94551) or both (94550 and 94551) being tacked on to neighboring districts so that the voice of the majority GOP voters in Livermore is drowned out by the Democrats and the independent voters in the rest of the district. And nobody seems to care that the voters in Livermore go on under-represented or even unrepresented, year-in and year-out, election-after-election.
Get it right please!
People like Hemphill in other systems and societies make people disappear in the middle of the night, or gleefuly stain the concrete walls in the back courtyard with the blood of tonight's victims of the purge. Thankfully, in our country, her ilk can only fantasize, and of course spew her vitriol here, thanks to the 1st amendment. As a 40+ year Democrat from George Miller's district, high school and town where he actually lives, foul, uncivil partisan hacks like Hemphill make me ashamed of my party.
http://www.petestark.com/video/pete-answers-the-tough-questions
http://www.petestark.com/video/pete-answers-the-tough-questions Why he runs.
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