Harman Defeats Rival, Who Advocates for a One-State Solution, in CA Primary

Sign up for Forwarding the News, our essential morning briefing with trusted, nonpartisan news and analysis, curated by Senior Writer Benyamin Cohen.

U.S. Rep. Jane Harman beat back a primary challenge from a candidate who advocates a binational solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Harman (D-Calif.) had 59 percent of the vote in the Los Angeles-area district in Tuesday’s primary to 41 percent for Marcy Winograd, who improved on her 2008 performance by 3 percentage points.

Winograd’s campaign challenged Harman’s relatively conservative record as a Democrat. One of the issues Winograd used was Harman’s closeness to Israel.

Among other gambits, Winograd questioned the loyalties of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), a liberal icon in southern California who backed Harman in her race. Winograd, Harman and Waxman are all Jewish.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) won 80 percent in her primary, handily defeating several challengers, including Mickey Kaus, a blogger who challenged Boxer on what he said was her liberal orthodoxies on unions and on immigration. Kaus and Boxer are Jewish.

Orly Taitz, the lawyer-dentist who gained national notoriety for her role in starting the “birther movement” – it peddles the false notion that President Obama was not born in the United States – lost in her bid to win the Republican candidacy for California secretary of state. Damon Dunn, the party-backed candidate, won three quarters of the vote.

Taitz, born in Moldova, lived for a time in Israel.