Sandra Fluke Wants to Run for Congress
Sandra Fluke, women's rights activist and Rush Limbaugh show villain, is seeking an endorsement from the California state Democratic Party to run for retiring Rep. Henry Waxman's seat. As the Washington Post notes, this is the first official step Fluke has taken to indicate a candidacy. She hasn't yet announced anything or filed with the FEC, but the wheels are now in motion. A source close to the potential candidate told The Hill on Monday that Fluke wanted to "keep her options open."
Fluke became famous after the Republican majority on the House Oversight Committee did not allow her to testify during a 2012 hearing on contraception coverage, instead opting for an all-male panel. (She later testified at a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing). Rush Limbaugh was so mad at the idea of a woman openly discussing contraceptive use that he, on air, called her a "slut" and demanded a sex tape, since taxpayers would be subsidizing her sex life. Those remarks made Fluke, then a Georgetown Law student even more famous, and an election-year lightning rod for the "War on Women."
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Since then, Fluke has been based out of Los Angeles as a women's rights advocate. She was a part of Obama's 2012 re-election bid, weighing in on (among other things) former Rep. Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" comments. Speculation that Fluke would run for something in the near future caught on after Waxman announced his retirement last week. Shortly after the news, Fluke said she was "strongly considering" running for his seat.
Assuming she does run, a Fluke candidacy will be a good test for the GOP's new idea that it's Democrats, and not Republicans, currently waging a war on women. Of course, some conservatives have already started tweeting variations on a theme of one familiar "joke" used to mock just about everything she does.
This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/02/sandra-fluke-inches-closer-running-congress/357693/
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