NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports that Rep. Jane Harman is resigning from Congress to take over as president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. This will set off a special election, probably to be held within a few months, to fill the empty seat.

Under the 1990s redistricting, this would probably be a somewhat-competitive election. The seat , which hugs the Los Angeles County shoreline from just south of Santa Monica to Torrance, was consistently close during that decade. But the 2000 incumbent protection plan removed about 70,000 Republican-leaning voters from the Palos Verdes area (they were about 53 percent McCain in 2008), and then added a similar number of 80 percent Obama voters taken from precincts west of Long Beach, south of Inglewood, and west of Culver City. Overall, the district gave John Kerry 59 percent of the vote and Barack Obama 64 percent of the vote, placing it well outside of the range of districts that are vulnerable, even in a very good GOP year like 2010.