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Redondo Beach mayor joins crowded race to succeed Rep. Jane Harman

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Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin has become the second Republican elected official to join the already-crowded field to replace Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) in a yet-to-be-called special election.

Announcing his candidacy in a news release Tuesday, Gin said he has helped deliver a balanced budget -- and sometimes even a budget surplus -- every year since 1995, when he was first elected to the Redondo Beach City Council.

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‘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,’ said Gin, who is serving his second four-year term as elected mayor.

Although the governor has not yet set the date for a special election to replace Harman, who resigned to lead a Washington think tank, several other candidates already are campaigning. They include two prominent Democratic officeholders, Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn. Teacher and anti-war activist Marcy Winograd, who won 41% of the vote against Harman in last June’s primary, some lesser-known Democrats and Redondo Beach’s elected city attorney, Mike Webb, a Republican, also have announced they’re running.

Regional politics watchers see Bowen and Hahn as front-runners in the strongly Democratic district. But Gin said he sees an opportunity for himself to appeal to independent voters and various ‘demographic and geographic voting groups, plus Republicans.’

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‘As an engineer who worked in the aerospace industry, a Chinese American, pro-choice Republican and an elected official who was born in the district, I represent the depth and diversity’ of the district, said Gin, who also is openly gay.

He released a list of local elected officials in the largely coastal 36th Congressional District who have endorsed him.

-- Jean Merl

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