The 48-year-old San Mateo poet is announcing today his bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, in an attempt to impeach President George W. Bush.

Hearle officially qualified for the June Democratic primary against Lantos, who has been in Congress for 25 years. Hearle is a successful poet and independent scholar who edits books and acts as a part-time professor at many universities including Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA and University of Iowa. Hearle admits it might be hard to unseat a long-standing member of Congress, but believes it’s important to send a message to citizens who also feel Bush should be impeached.

“I don’t expect it to be easy. I know my opponent in this race has more than a half a million dollars in his war chest,” Hearle said.

Hearle wants his congressional bid to inspire others frustrated by the Bush administration to take on federal legislatures to enact change. Alone, Hearle said he will not be able to impeach Bush, but if other like-minded people run for election there could be a chance, he said.

“If you’re in my district, I hope you will vote for me. If you’re not in my district, I encourage you to press your congresswoman or congressman to sponsor or co-sponsor a bill of impeachment. If your representative won’t call for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, then I encourage you to join me in running for Congress,” Hearle states on his Web site.

Hearle is a fifth-generation Californian, a distinguished poet and former president of City Arts of San Mateo. He has never held public office, but spent seven years with City Arts as president, treasurer and secretary. He was instrumental in creating a Percent for Art program that was adopted by the city. It created a policy requiring new developers to place public art at their new buildings.

He received his bachelor’s degree in English with Distinction from Stanford University, went on to earn his M.F.A. in English from the University of Iowa, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

He is the winner of the international Burkhardt Award as the Outstanding Steinbeck Scholar of 2005.

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