Redondo Mayor to Run for Congressional Seat

Mike Gin, who is serving his second term as mayor of neighboring Redondo Beach, announced Tuesday he is running for .

Harman has resigned from office to lead a Washington think tank. Now Gin and City Attorney Mike Webb are running against each other as Republicans to succeed Harman.

Gin, who is openly gay, is hoping to combine his pro-choice, moderate social image along with fiscal responsibility to capitalize on moderate voters.

A Chinese-American aerospace engineer, Gin was born in the South Bay and works as a field deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe.

“I’ve helped manage Redondo Beach the way I believe our country should be managed,” Gin said in a statement Tuesday. “I remain a tight-fisted fiscal administrator who believes in controlling spending and reducing our deficit in conjunction with creating good jobs in a new economy. This lies at the very center of what our national resurgence requires.”

The 36th Congressional District includes Manhattan Beach and runs from Venice and Mar Vista down through parts of the South Bay.

Gin described the District as a traditional safe haven for Democratic candidates, although he believes he can pull off an upset victory by appealing to a large demographic of voters, as well as what are called decline-to-state voters, or those who do not register with one of the qualified parties.

On the Democratic side, L.A. City Councilwoman Janice Hahn of San Pedro and California Secretary of State Debra Bowen of Marina del Rey are running for the Congressional seat, along with union-backed candidate Marcy Winograd.