Raucous cheers alternating with unrestrained boos met 12 candidates in the 36th Congressional District race at a forum Wednesday night in Venice.

A couple of hundred residents from Venice and surrounding neighborhoods gathered in the Westminster Avenue Elementary School auditorium to learn the candidates' positions on foreign policy, domestic and social policy, and the country's budget.

"I think people really wanted to hear what the candidates had to say," said Linda Lucks, president of the Venice Neighborhood Council, which sponsored the forum with the Mar Vista Community Council.

The diverse group of candidates included progressive Democrat Marcy Winograd, a high school teacher from Venice, and self-financed tea party contender Craig Huey, a South Bay businessman.

Winograd charmed the mostly over-50 crowd on her home turf, where 54 percent of voters in Venice and 53 percent of voters in Mar Vista selected the would-be politician over Jane Harman in the Democratic primary in June last year. Harman went on to win the district but resigned in February, prompting a special election, which will take place May 17.

Several of the candidates mentioned new election laws that went into effect this year that stipulate that if no candidate wins a majority, there will be a runoff between the top two vote getters, regardless of party. With a full slate of candidates, it is widely expected that this race will go to a runoff.

Michael Chamness, who is affiliated with the Coffee Party, called the laws "absurd" in his opening statement. He said that mounting a case to change the laws was the primary reason he is running. "The law limits voter choice and candidate rights," he said. After the forum concluded, Chamness told supporters that he now plans to vote for Winograd. 

He may have been the only person in the auditorium who changed his mind.

"I thought most people in the audience were already decided," said Mark Ryavec, a Venice resident, president of the Venice Stakeholders Association and a Debra Bowen supporter.

"But I was struck by the breadth of discussion; people were well informed," he said.

The breadth of candidates was also striking. Several contenders, including Venice's Dan Adler and Marina del Rey's Matthew Roozee, have never held political office before. 

"I have no experience driving the City of Angels into the ground or in bankrupting the Golden State," Roozee said, apparently referencing front-runners Janice Hahn, a Los Angeles councilwoman, and Bowen, the California secretary of state. Calling current politicians "corrupt, incompetent political hacks," Roozee positioned the race as a call to start electing better representation.

The forum was preceded by a rally by Veterans for Peace, during which anti-war activist Ron Kovic, author of Born on the Fourth of July, asked candidates to sign a commitment to vote against any future funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Winograd and Steve Collett both signed on.

Hahn, who has been criticized for using images of Arlington West, a Veterans for Peace project in Santa Monica, in her campaign materials, shook Kovic's hand and reiterated her desire to bring American troops back home, but declined to sign the pledge.

"If you really want to represent this district," Kovic said, "you have to take a stand."