Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Glendale, was re-elected in a landslide Tuesday as California’s 29th District congressman.

He was victorious over his Republican opponent, Harry Scolinos, who spent $600,000 (mostly his own money) on the campaign, and Green candidate Philip Koebel and Libertarian Ted Brown.

Though Schiff won with 65 percent of the vote, he took the challenge from Scolinos seriously. “Next time around the national GOP will look very closely at this seat. Whenever a candidate spends so much of his own money they take it very seriously.”

Schiff’s most notable contributions in the past four years include introducing the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act to Congress, which is designed to minimize identity theft by increasing punishment for offenders.Schiff also worked on the DNA Database Enhancement Act, through which unsolved murders and rape cases can potentially be cracked through the improved use of DNA analysis in criminal investigations.

In addition to introducing the Kids First initiative, which aims at promoting educational opportunities and improving health and dental care available to students, Schiff is also a strong supporter of increasing federal aid to college students. Immediate plans for his next term in congress include continuing work on nuclear proliferation and furthering his involvement as the co-chair of a Democratic Study Group on National Security as well as continuing his efforts to bring up the quality of education while bringing down the cost for students.
Schiff has represented Glendale, Pasadena, Altadena, Burbank, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Temple City, and San Gabriel as a Democrat since he first became elected to the House of Representatives in 2000.

Prior to his position in the House of Representatives, Schiff sat in for a four-year term in the state senate. In the last two years of that term and in his first year in congress, Schiff also taught political science at GCC. “After that, my schedule became too unpredictable because I never knew when House would be called in for a meeting, and I couldn’t continue teaching.” Schiff said.

While Schiff was celebrating his decisive victory at the Pasadena Hilton Tuesday, the Democratic Party was suffering the greater loss of Sen. John Kerry’s defeat in the run for presidency. “It still hasn’t sunk in yet,” Schiff said. “I just hope whoever the president is, he will make a real effort to unite the country. The last four years, we have been really divided.”

In light of Kerry’s loss, the passage of the stem cell research proposition 71 served as mild pacification to Democrats in California with 59 percent of the votes in favor of it. Since the federal government does not support stem cell research, California’s right to it is now exclusive.

Proposition 66, which was set to amend the three strikes law so that only certain violent crimes would count as a strike while minor felonies would not, took a last minute swerve and contrary to expectations, did not pass.