Race for Lantos’ Seat Begins, Basically Ends

Former State Senator Jackie Speier made official yesterday what had already been assumed: she’s running for Congress again. Accompanied by Congress members Anna Eshoo and Mike Thompson to a park named after her assassinated boss Congressman Leo Ryan, Speier announced that she was officially in the “race” for the seat that the cancer-stricken Lantos will vacate at the end of 2008. She’s already lined up endorsements from 93 other elected officials, including San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom. I guess he got engaged to run for a different higher office. [CQ Politics]