Mike Thompson Looking Forward To Representing Martinez

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, assured a good crowd of Martinez voters Saturday there will be smooth transition to his representation of northern Martinez, assuming he is re-elected in 2012.

Thompson's Congressional District 1, soon to be District 5, is being extended from the North Coast area he has represented since 1998 to include new areas of Solano and Contra Costa County, including Martinez, Benicia and Vallejo. Those areas are represented, until after the November 2012 election, by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, whose district will move south of Highway 4 through Central County. 

The event Saturday was hosted by Mayor Rob Schroder and his wife, Suzanne. Thompson said he appreciated the fact that a large audience had turned up during the holiday season to meet him. 

He noted he and Miller have worked together for many years and said he expected that working relationship would continue to benefit the city and Contra Costa County. 

"If I do something for one part of the county, the whole county will benefit," he said. 

He noted that he served in the state Senate before terming out and running for Congress. There, he was chair of the powerful Budget Committee. In Washington, D.C., he is on the similarly powerful Ways and Means Committee, as well as the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and its subcommittee on Terrorism, Human Intelligence, Analysis and Counterintelligence.

He is a native of his Solano-Napa County home base, where his family has lived since his grandparents were born there, as was he. That makes him a natural co-chairmanship of the House of Representatives' Wine Caucus. He owns a small vineyard. 

Mayor Schroder said the city should not worry about being split between two Congressional districts, given the representation. 

"Having two congressmen is an opportunity to build a new relationship with the federal government," Schroder said. 

Thompson is favored to win re-election next year in the heavily Democratic district. So far, no challengers have come forth.  

He also met with voters at a separate reception  hosted by former Martinez Councilman Tim Farley