Elizabeth Emken, the former vice president of governmental affairs at  Autism Speaks and a Danville resident, this morning was set to became the eighth declared Republican candidate in the 2010 June primary for the 11th Congressional District.

Click here to read her biography.

The other candidates who have entered the race or say they will run include:

1) Jeff Takada, a high school teacher in Manteca

2) Lodi-area grape grower Brad Goehring

3) Businessman Jon Del Arroz, of Danville

4) Former San Jose Councilman and Values Advocacy Council founder Larry Pegram

5) San Ramon businessman David Bernal

6) Former U.S. Marshal and Sacramento-area Latino leader Tony Amador of Lodi

7) Lodi-area construction company owner Robert Beadles

The growing Republican field reflects the view among many that the GOP, which holds a slight party registration lead, could retake this seat in 2010. Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, pulled off a major upset in 2006 when he ousted Republican Richard Pombo.

UPDATE: Read Emken’s press release and her comments today on her candidacy below.

DANVILLE, CA -Danville resident, Elizabeth Emken today announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination for United States Congress in California’s 11^th District. She made the announcement against the backdrop of San Ramon Valley High School, attended by her seventeen year old son, who has autism.  In addition to her family, friends and supporters, Emken was joined by students and faculty from the San Ramon Valley Christian Academy.

Emken began her remarks by stating, “I’m Elizabeth Emken and I am seeking the Republican nomination to unseat Jerry McNerney and give the communities of California’s 11^th Congressional District a very different kind of representative in Washington – a conservative representative. One who will no longer stand by as leader Pelosi and follower McNerney rush to control of our lives from Washington.”

Until declaring her candidacy, Elizabeth Emken served as Vice President for Government Relations at Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest science and advocacy organization devoted to the public health emergency of autism.

Elizabeth graduated from UCLA in 1984, with a degree in Economics and Political Science. Prior to her professional involvement with the autism cause, Elizabeth focused on field management, cost and financial analysis, and corporate operations at IBM Corporation.

Emken went on to say, “When my son, Alex, now 17, was diagnosed with autism at age 4, I knew the focus in my life had changed forever. I would kneel at his bedside and promise him I would do everything in my power to find out what happened to him, to never quit working to return him to health, and to stop this from happening to other children.

“I became, first informally, and then professionally, an advocate for those with autism and for all special needs children.

“I have spent the last 13 years trying to keep my promise to my son and to his sisters. And in doing so I learned that all roads lead to Congress. I’ve learned that the 435 people who get to cast votes on the floor of the House really affect the quality of life of every American family, every day.

“So why am I running? Why should I be the Congresswomen from my home District? Because, while Jerry McNerney believes that Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives can and will save America, I believe America must be saved from leader Pelosi’s and follower McNerney’s view of the world. “

Emken focused her remarks on the need to restore fiscal responsibility to Washington, asking her audience, “Have you met one person who has gotten a new job because of the so called “stimulus” plan that blew up our national debt?” and explaining her opposition to the House passed climate change legislation, supported by Congressman McNerney, saying about the so called “cap and trade” legislation, “Unless we are prepared to turn off our lights and turn off the heat when we cap out, then our energy prices will go up”.

Emken’s comments at her press conference this morning, as provided by her campaign:

COPY OF REMARKS

Remarks by Elizabeth Emken

DANVILLE, CA – October 19, 2009 – I’m Elizabeth Emken and I am seeking the Republican nomination to unseat Jerry McNerney and give the communities of California’s 11^th Congressional District a very different kind of representative in Washington – a conservative representative. One who will no longer stand by as leader Pelosi and follower McNerney rush to control of our lives from Washington.

At UCLA, I studied economics and political science. But my journey from those studies to today has been anything but a straight line.

I married – this wonderful man who I’m so proud to have at my side this morning, Craig Swartz – and I then launched and advanced a career in financial management at IBM, one of the world’s true blue chip corporations.

When my son, Alex, now 17, was diagnosed with autism at age 4, I knew the focus in my life had changed forever. I would kneel at his bedside and promise him I would do everything in my power to find out what happened to him, to never quit working to return him to health, and to stop this from happening to other children.

I became, first informally, and then professionally, an advocate for those with autism and for all special needs children.

Until deciding to pursue this candidacy, I was Vice President of Government Relations at Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest science and advocacy organization devoted to the public health emergency of autism.

I have spent the last 13 years trying to keep my promise to my son and to his sisters, Hayleigh and Emmaleigh.

And in doing so I quickly learned that all roads lead to Congress. I’ve learned that the 435 people who get to cast votes on the floor of the House really affect the quality of life of every American family, every day.

And that is why I decided to launch my own effort to be one of those 435 people in Congress, here today, with my son’s school as my backdrop. The wonderful people in special education at San Ramon Valley High School, who work with children like Alex, inspire me to use the influence of office to speak up for those children who have no influence.

For more than a decade, I’ve knocked on numerous doors. I’ve seen the legislative sausage-making factory from top to bottom and left to right. There’s no one who will seek your vote in 2010 who has participated in the passage of more legislation, and I will be bold enough to say, who has helped more people – including the incumbent Congressman – than I have. I know what works in Washington. I know it’s multiple and manifest failures.

So why am I running? Why should I be the Congresswoman from my home District?

Because, while Jerry McNerney believes that Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives can and will save America, I believe America must be saved from leader Pelosi’s and follower McNerney’s view of the world.

This year’s federal spending will rise to nearly 30 cents of every dollar Americans produce, a level only exceeded at the high point of World War II. If we continue down the path laid out by leader Pelosi and follower McNerney, in ten years we will have added over 9 trillion dollars to our national debt and weakened our nation immeasurably in the process, and that is unacceptable.

And I ask you, what exactly have leader Nancy Pelosi and follower Jerry McNerney accomplished spending all that printed money? Have you met one person who has gotten a new job because of the so called “stimulus” plan that blew up our national debt?

To the contrary, California has the dubious distinction of now ranking 4th, out of all 50 states, in unemployment. We are up to 12.2% – a number not seen since the Great Depression. 2.2 million people are officially listed as out of work in California.

Have you met even a single homeowner whose home was saved thanks to leader Pelosi and follower McNerney’s various handouts to Wall Street? Any individual or small business that’s tried to get a loan lately knows our credit market is still frozen, and until Congress moves to address the credit problem, our economy WILL NOT GROW.

But the march off the cliff of bad policy in the House of Representatives is just getting started.

Next on the agenda is the single largest tax increase and power grab ever attempted by Washington – the so called “cap and trade” environmental regulation boondoggle.

Leader Pelosi and follower McNerney want to effectively cap and tax the energy we use.  This means the cost of energy – which is the basic input for our district’s high tech, manufacturing, agriculture, and services economy – and the fuel that literally sustains jobs for the people of our district, will be much higher. Unless we are prepared to turn off our lights and turn off the heat when we cap out, then our energy prices will go up.

We showed Grey Davis what happens to politicians who don’t understand the simple reality that affordable energy is the backbone of California’s economy. We are still stuck with 44 cents a kilowatt hour. But let me tell you, we have the opportunity to say “no” to higher PG&E bills under a cap and trade bill. This time, we must show the Washington politicians how we feel before our electric bills and so much else go further through the roof.

Does this mean that a Republican Congresswoman should only say “No”? Of course not.

Here’s my solution—an alternative fuel future will be a prosperous one for Northern California. But, here is the key – the transition from present fuels to future fuels must be based on the availability of alternative fuel technologies that don’t raise the price of everything.

My alternative to “cap and tax” would support dramatically accelerated research to produce practical – which means affordable – alternative fuels, including clean coal, wind, solar and geothermal energy. In fact, there is a bill already pending in the House of Representatives – actually a bi-partisan bill (but supported only by a handful of breakaway Members who aren’t afraid of doing the right thing.)

This bill would open up new areas for offshore oil and gas drilling and use the huge amount of money from those leases to get serious about alternative energy research. All of this activity would create jobs in California and across the country.

McNerney claims expertise on all these issues. But so far, he has not led. He has sat on his back bench and followed the direction of Nancy Pelosi.

Of course, the Nancy Pelosi Congress can’t allow an alternative strategy because – and here is the truth you will never hear from Washington – they are committed to reducing our use of energy, regardless of the costs to our economy. They want to build a bridge to the future without any foundation. We must stop them from forcing us all out onto the bridge before it collapses.

In my years of walking the halls of Congress, I came to understand that my promise to Alex was about something much broader than getting our government to respond to the genuine public health emergency which autism has become. I came to understand that my promise now had to be about helping creating a smarter and more responsive federal government.

To both improve our economy and protect our environment, and to make sure that those two goals are not nuclear missiles aimed at each other, we must reject leader Pelosi and follower McNerney’s indiscriminant spending and excessive regulation.

My campaign is about getting federal policy right on these most important issues that affect all of us every day, now and for the rest of our lives.

None of these issues – energy, the environment, the economy – however, affect lives which are cut short. I learned the absolute necessity of a strong and unyielding national defense when my then kindergarten daughter’s twin classmates lost their father, Tom Burnett, in a Pennsylvania field on 9/11. I can’t believe the attention spans of our current leaders are so short. On this, as much as on domestic policies, Jerry McNerney and I come from a different perspective.

I am Elizabeth Emken and I look forward to representing all of us in Congress. As your Congresswoman, I will represent this district with integrity, humility and generosity.

I ask you for your support, and may God Bless the United States of America.