My best friend Catherine Moy is getting ready to jump into the Congressional special election in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay area) to run as the only conservative, amongst a field of moderates.

She is a City Councilwoman in Fairfield, Calif. which is home to Travis Air Force Base.

The race is going to be a crowded one. And it is not certain who Republicans will coalesce around. But I can tell you that this contest is ground zero for Democrats and Republicans who are going to nationalize it as a referendum on Barack Hussein Obama's nascent presidency.

I have been told by my  sources at the state capital that the race on the Democrat side will be orchestrated by Karen Bass, Speaker of the Assembly, and all the usual Democrat trolls. The word is that Mark DeSalnier of Contra Costa County (no, I don't know who he is)  has the inside edge from support from establishment Democrats (money and endorsements.)

Meanwhile, Contra Costa County Times political reporter Josh Richman has his take on the situation.

Conservative activist, author and former radio talk show host Melanie Morgan sent an e-mail yesterday saying she’s “squealing like a schoolgirl” to announce that Catherine Moy – executive director of the Move America Forward group of which Morgan is chairwoman; co-author with Morgan of “American Mourning;” and a Fairfield City Council member – will run in the special election to succeed Rep. Ellen Tauscher, assuming Tauscher is confirmed to a high-ranking State Department post.

“The conservative counter-insurgency has begun, and I’m going to do everything in my power to get Cat elected,” Morgan wrote. “Cat has terrific name recognition in the area, a devoted following and she is entirely capable of running this race and winning it – as a rock-solid conservative who has never voted to raise a single tax, and has a solid record on national defense working relentlessly with the largest pro-troops grassroots organization in the country.”

I don’t know Moy, as Fairfield is outside the area we often cover here; I intend to call her tomorrow. Fairfield does fall within the 10th Congressional District that Tauscher now serves, but the district’s slices of Solano, Alameda and Sacramento counties together don’t come close to matching the bulk Contra Costa County provides; it’ll be hard for someone without significant Contra Costa name recognition to come out on top of this race. And as I’ve noted before, the district’s Democrats have an 18-percentage-point voter registration edge over Republicans, so that’s an obstacle, too.

Other Republicans considering a run include 2008 GOP nominee Nicholas Gerber of Moraga; California Republican Party Vice Chairman Tom Del Beccaro and Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren Rupf. Democrats mulling a run include state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord; Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo; former Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, D-Pittsburg; former BART director and retired PG&E executive Dan Richard of Walnut Creek; and former Lafayette Mayor Scott Talan.

For an excerpt from an article about Moy by Morgan, published Friday on WorldNetDaily.com, follow me after the jump…

From Morgan’s article:

I have been with Catherine on the streets when America haters are attacking our military. I clearly remember her in Berkeley, where the City Council called our Marines “uninvited intruders.” She marched into City Hall, got permits and then helped MAF lead a protest against the slander on our troops.

Catherine is Rahm Emanuel’s biggest nightmare. She is tough, compassionate, intelligent, beautiful and fearless. She can raise lots of cash, and she has lots of support throughout the 10th Congressional District.

She is not an entrenched politician of any sort. She would not have become involved as a city councilwoman except for the love she had for the town where she grew up. Last year, the young and energetic Councilman Matt Garcia was murdered by an alleged drug dealer. About three weeks later, another councilman killed himself.

Like Dianne Feinstein during the murder of her two colleagues, Catherine stepped up to help her city. She was appointed to the seat and is now a favorite in town. Unlike Feinstein, she has voted against every tax and given a hand up to the elderly and poor of Fairfield. It is not uncommon to find her at the Matt Garcia Youth Center hanging out with the kids.

President Obama’s chief of staff and the other left-wing hacks from Nancy Pelosi’s guard of jackbooted thugs will come at her. (Important safety tip to Nancy: The Air Force jets that you fly into Travis AFB are in Catherine’s district, so be nice.)

The liberals won’t like that she loves this country and believes our Constitution should be followed to the T. They won’t like that she knows how to shoot guns and has killed and eaten rattlesnakes. She rides horses, has a walnut ranch and spends her days meeting face-to-face with the residents she serves. She can handle the snake pit of liberal congresspunks who have spent our great-grandchildren’s money while killing our retirement funds.