Obama Endorses Incumbent Henry Waxman

President Barack Obama weighed in on the 33rd Congressional District race Tuesday, endorsing veteran Democrat Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) for re-election. 

Waxman, 72, who has served in Congress since 1975, is running against Bill Bloomfield, a Manhattan Beach small business owner with no party preference, for the U.S. House of Representatives seat in the Nov. 6 general election.

"Henry Waxman has always fought for what is right and in the best interests of California and our nation," Obama said in a press release. "I will continue to rely on Congressman Waxman's help over the next four years to move our nation forward and to create an economy that's built to last."

In New York's 12th Congressional District race, the President endorsed incumbent Representative Nydia Velazquez in June. That race is expected to be a close one between Velazquez and her opponent, Councilman Erik Dilan.

According to the online publication, Capital New York, Obama does not endorse candidates in open-seat primaries but sometimes does endorse incumbents.

Waxman—current ranking member of the powerful House Energy and Commerce—was one of the main architects of the Affordable Care Act. He played a similar role in drafting the government's first comprehensive bill on AIDS in 1988, and was the was a primary author of the Clean Air Act in 1990, according to the New York Times.

"The thing I love to do," Mr. Waxman once said, "is legislate," the newspaper has also reported.

Locally, Waxman is a strong proponent of the Westside Subway extension, though the route is in dispute.

Waxman moved from his 30th Congressional District to the newly drawn 33rd after redistricting in 2011 altered boundaries to reflect population changes. 

Last August, Hal Dash, chairman of Los Angeles-based public policy consulting firm Cerrell Associates, said the new district maps should keep the Democratic majority intact in the state Legislature and 53-person Congressional delegation, the largest in the nation.

"It's still going to be a Democratic area," Dash said at the time. "Waxman is a great fundraiser and he won't have a tough race, it's just a new constituency. He'll have to spend some time meeting and greeting new people, which he hasn't had to do in years."

The newly drawn 33rd Congressional District includes Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Malibu, Santa Monica, Westwood, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, West Los Angeles, Pacific Palisades and slivers of Marina del Rey and Venice.