Via the AP: Matsui Wins Late Husband’s House Seat
With all precincts reporting Tuesday, Matsui had nearly 72 percent of the overall vote and 88 percent among Democrats in a race marked by low turnout. She is expected to be sworn in Thursday.Matsui, a lobbyist and former Clinton White House official, completed what her television ads called a “uniquely Sacramento story.” Succeeding her husband, the late U.S. Rep. Robert Matsui, she becomes the nation’s 45th congressional widow since 1923 to assume the seat of her spouse. She is the third to win in California under such circumstances since 1998.
No surprise at all. On the one hand, I fully understand why widows often run for their late husband’s seats. However, on the other it always seems a bit odd to me–especially when they then stay in office for a while. It is almost as if they have been bequeathed the seat rather than winning in outright and that smacks of aristocracy, not democracy.
March 10th, 2005 at 12:41 am
Doris Matsui Becomes My Congresswoman
Well I tried my best to not end up with the wife of my former Congressman, Robert Matsui who died January 1, 2005, win my districts congressional seat, but in the end she unsurprisingly won it anyway. My district here…