Surprise Republican may advance to runoff for long-held Democratic House seat
(CNN) - Democratic Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn has advanced to a July 12 special runoff election to replace former Democratic Rep. Jane Harman in Congress, according to unofficial vote returns from a special election held Tuesday.
Her opponent will either be Republican businessman Craig Huey or California's Democratic Secretary of State Debra Bowen.
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Special election date announced in California
Washington (CNN) - A special election has been called to fill the vacancy left by California Democratic Rep. Jane Harman.
Dean Logan, the Registrar-Recorder and County Clerk for Los Angeles, said Monday a July 12 special election and May 17 primary will be held to fill the seat in California's 36th district.
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Amid the budget cutting, goodbye to Jane Harman
Washington (CNN) - House members took a quick break from partisan attacks Friday to salute one of their own - Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, whose last day in Congress is February 28.
After voting to cut billions from this year's budget, members made a slightly awkward turn to say goodbye to the long-time congresswoman, who celebrated bipartisanship in her remarks.
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Harman's departure likely to leave seat empty for months
Washington (CNN) - Democratic California Congresswoman Jane Harman said Tuesday the cost of a special election, forced by her resignation from Congress, will likely be "minimal." But despite her call to fill her seat as "quickly as possible," her abrupt resignation will likely result in her constituents being unrepresented for months.
Harman announced she would resign her seat in Congress in order to accept an appointment as the head of the Woodrow Wilson International Center beginning on February 28 at a news conference on Tuesday. She was sworn in to her ninth term representing the 36th district of California last month.
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Harman departure leaves questions
Washington (CNN) - Democratic California Rep. Jane Harman is expected to announce her intention to resign from office on Tuesday and when she does she will face more questions about the timing of her decision.
Harman won her 9th term in office in November and was sworn in just last month. She is expected to announce she will leave Congress to head the Woodrow Wilson Center, a top think tank in Washington.
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Harman leaving Congress for DC think tank
Washington (CNN) - Rep. Jane Harman will retire from Congress and head the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, three Democratic sources familiar with Harman's plans confirm to CNN.
Harman, who served in Congress from 1993-1999 and then from 2001 until the present, is expected to take the top post at the Washington think tank being vacated by former Rep. Lee Hamilton. It is not clear when Harman will officially resign from Congress, but she will not serve out the rest of her term, one Democratic source says.
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Bash: Will tough words reassure Democrats?
(CNN) - It is unclear if President Obama's tough words for President Hamid Karzai are enough to reassure skeptical Democrats. Even hawkish Democratic Rep. Jane Harman opposes the president, in large part, because of the corruption problems surrounding the Afghan president.
Pelosi disputes suggestion she was told waterboarding used
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/05/08/art.nancy0508.gi.jpg caption=" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is disputing a CIA account sent to Congress that raises questions about her insistence she was never told explicitly that waterboarding had been used on terrorist suspects."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is disputing a CIA account sent to Congress that raises questions about her insistence she was never told explicitly that waterboarding had been used on terrorist suspects.
The CIA-prepared memo, provided to CNN by Republican sources, lists 40 briefings for members of Congress from September 2002 to March 2009. The first briefing on the list - on September 4, 2002 - was for then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss and Pelosi, then the ranking Democrat on the committee.
The subject of the briefing is listed as EITs, or enhanced interrogation techniques, "including use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on authorities, and a description of the particular EITs that had been employed."
CIA Director Leon Panetta, in cover letters sent with the memo to the House and Senate Intelligence committees, says the information "is drawn from the past files of the CIA and represents MFR (memorandum for the record) completed at the time and notes that summarized the best recollections of those individuals. In the end, you and the committee will have to determine what actually happened."
Last month, Pelosi told reporters that she was told about the legal justification for the interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, but was never told the controversial technique had been used on any detainees.
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Harman speaks out on wiretap controversy
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Congresswoman Jane Harman, D-California, told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference Sunday she asked Attorney General Eric Holder to disclose all information related to the wiretap controversy involving her, and related to AIPAC.
"I want it all out there. I want it in public," she said again. "I want everyone to understand, including me, what has happened."
Harman has recently faced scrutiny over reports the government intercepted a conversation she had several years ago, in which she reportedly agreed to seek leniency for Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, former lobbyists for AIPAC accused of espionage.
Prosecutors dropped the case against Rosen and Weissman on Friday.
Harman denied contacting anyone in the government about their case.
Pelosi now says she was told Harman was picked up on wiretap
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/04/22/art.pelosicu0422.gi.jpg caption="Speaker Pelosi said Wednesday that she had been informed that fellow Democrat Rep. Jane Harman had been picked up on a federal wiretap."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday she had been informed that Rep. Jane Harman had been picked up on a wiretap - after Tuesday telling reporters she didn't know.
According to a transcript of Pelosi's remarks at the Christian Science Monitor lunch provided by Pelosi's office, the speaker said, "A few years ago, maybe three years ago, they did brief me." She said she was not fully briefed on the nature of the conversation, but because of her leadership position she was told Harman had been overheard on a wiretap.
Pelosi did not say which agency had carried out the wiretap. A government official told CNN Harman's conversation was picked up by an FBI wiretap.
"In fact, I didn't even know if what they were talking about was real. All they said was that she was wiretapped," Pelosi said.
The speaker went on to defend Harman, a fellow California Democrat, telling reporters, "I have great confidence in Jane Harman, she is a patriotic American. She would never do anything to hurt her country."
Because the briefing was classified, Pelosi said, she was not in a position to share the information with Harman or anyone else.
The number two House Democrat, Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, told reporters that the stories about the government taping Harman's conversations gave him "great concern" and said the Justice Department needs to look into the matter.
"Hopefully they are. And I may have some conversations with the attorney general on that aspect," he said.
Hoyer also said he planned to talk to Pelosi about what action, if any, Congress needs to take.
- CNN's Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.
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