First Democrat enters congressional race with doozy of a name.

Jimmy Panetta hit all the right notes during his announcement that he’s going to run for the congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Sam Farr at the end of Farr’s current term in 2016. Panetta was alternately witty, charming, humble, forceful and patriotic as he acknowledged the worst kept secret in the world: He wants to go to Congress.

It’s been whispered about for months (years, maybe), but there was no way any Democrat in his or her right mind was going to take on Farr in a primary. The party wouldn’t have allowed it and it would be a waste of cash anyway, because Farr was undefeatable. It was going to take Farr retiring to make a serious race happen, and Farr made that surprise announcement Nov. 12.

Panetta took to the podium outside Custom House Plaza Nov. 17 during a press event to launch his campaign and introduce himself. “My name is Jimmy Panetta,” he said, with a smile and mock dramatic pause after the Jimmy, “and I’m here to tell you I would like to represent you in Congress.”

The backstory to that dramatic pause: Apparently in the rush to get the news out first, that Jimmy Panetta was going to announce his run, KSBW reported instead that his father, former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Leon Panetta, was going to run for Congress. In the rush to chase KSBW and be perennially second, KION apparently copied and pasted from KSBW and reported the same thing.

Dramatic pause: This is just a hint of the lunacy to come.

Dramatic pause: This is just a hint of the lunacy to come. Jimmy Panetta’s speech was good, and he put forth some compelling ideas (he plans, he said, to introduce national service legislation that will get kids out of the classroom and out from behind their computers and into the community working for public good) but lunacy is going to be found in the jockeying for position, as more candidates get into the race. (Look for an announcement from state Sen. Bill Monning in early December, and possible announcements from Assemblymembers Luis Alejo and Mark Stone and Carmel Mayor Jason Burnett.) And lunacy will be found as Monterey County’s devout Democrats decide which of those devout Democratic candidates they’re going to support.

An interesting crowd turned out for the announcement. Alex Hulanicki was there spying on behalf of his candidate, Republican Congressional candidate Casey Lucius. (Hulanicki will call, text or tweet about 15 seconds after he reads this to stomp his foot and say he wasn’t spying.) Local GOP shotcaller Paul Bruno was there too, seeing how the sausage is made and offering me tax advice (“You gonna use the loophole? You gotta use the loophole,” he said, referring to my husband’s lottery win of May 2015 and the “loophole” that says lottery winnings aren’t subject to state income tax. “That’s $250,000 right there!”) And campaign demon Christian Schneider, who ran Steve Bernal’s epically dirty and successful campaign against Sheriff Scott Miller last year Schneider lives in Los Angeles and doesn’t have a local candidate doing anything, not yet, anyway. Maybe he wanted to see how the sausage is made too. And the Peninsula hoteliers and restaurateurs were out in force (John Narigi, Ted Balestreri, the Shake brothers) and I’m pretty sure none of them are registered Democrats, but they are all old friends of Leon Panetta.

It must be a strange position to be in: forever associated with your father with the famous name and legacy, but with your own ideas and plans to run what’s going to be a difficult race, with maybe a half-dozen other candidates with their own ideas and laudable records about to jump into the fray.

Before the serious campaigning ramps up, Jimmy Panetta, a Monterey County deputy district attorney, has a murder trial to contend with, one of the worst cases in Monterey County: the killing of 6-year-old Azahel Cruz in 2010. The child was struck by a bullet that came through the wall as he played in the kitchen of his East Salinas home.

The trial starts Nov. 30. Who knows? Maybe seeking long-overdue justice for a murdered child will make the Congressional race seem like a cake walk.

Mary Duan is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com or follow her at twitter.com/maryrduan.