OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 18 (UPI) -- A former California state lawmaker announced Thursday she would run for the seat held by Rep. Barbara Lee, the California Democrat who cast the only vote in the House of Representatives against a military response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the United States.
Audie Bock, a former member of the California State Assembly, scheduled a news conference in Oakland Thursday to announce her candidacy for the state's 9th Congressional District.
"The challenge comes as a result of Lee's handling of the terrorist attacks on the United States and her vote against re-affirming the president's authority to use military force to eradicate the terrorist threat," Bock's office said in a release.
Bock is a former Green Party member who was the surprising winner of a special Assembly election in 1999; she lost her bid for re-election as an independent last year.
Lee was elected to Congress in 1998 after a long career in the state legislature.
While Bock's liberal resume will likely play well in the 9th District -- which includes Oakland, Berkeley and other San Francisco Bay Area communities -- she is appealing directly to those voters who may be miffed or offended at Lee's vote in the House.
"You see a lot of flags on people's homes," Bock told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Even in Berkeley, aren't the students out there protesting the protesters? Some people 'get it' that our nation has been attacked and that we need to stand together."
Berkeley has traditionally been a left-leaning community whose residents, along with students at the University of California, are not shy about protesting the use of military force by the United States.
The Berkeley City Council passed a resolution Tuesday condemning the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, however the measure passed on a narrow 5-4 vote and not before language was added voicing outrage at the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
