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.

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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.

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