CA-32: Solis Confirmed As Labor Secretary 80-17

The race for the 32nd Congressional District of California begins today since it's current representative Hilda Solis was confirmed as Labor Secretary by the United States Senate Tuesday by a vote of 80-17.

The current leading candidates, according to dday at Calitics are:

Judy Chu is currently on the Board of Equalization. While a Chinese-American running for a seat that is majority Latino, Chu has the support of the California Federation of Labor, which typically cleans up in these kinds of special elections. That alone makes her the favorite IMO.

Gil Cedillo is a State Senator in the adjoining district, and so he represents very few of these constituents. He has been strong on issues around immigration in particular, and will certainly be formidable in this race.

Emanuel Pleitez worked in the Obama transition team on the Treasury Department. The fact that Treasury has practically no senior officers staffing it save for Tim Geithner, over a month after the inauguration, doesn't really speak well to Pleitez' transition capabilities. But he apparently has the most robust campaign apparatus in the district thus far (with 17 volunteer full-time staff members), and he was born and raised in the district.

MadProfessah is endorsing Judy Chu, who is an incredibly strong ally of the LGBT community.