Posted on 10/23/2006 3:21:37 PM PDT by radar101
Democrat's claim of grand jury probe riles congressman
An angry Brian Bilbray blasted Democratic challenger Francine Busby yesterday as “the poster child for unethical political activities” for making unsubstantiated allegations that he is under criminal investigation.
During a live appearance on NBC 7/39, Busby said voters in the 50th Congressional District ask her two questions that “I can't answer but Mr. Bilbray can.”
“One is, why are you being investigated by a grand jury – a criminal grand jury – and why won't you talk to the people in this district?”
Bilbray, the Republican incumbent, testily replied he is the target of a smear and that the Busby campaign “has gone so far over the line . . . .”
Busby and top campaign aides have yet to provide proof of an investigation but say a grand jury is looking into whether Bilbray committed fraud by claiming three properties as his principal residence.
The Busby campaign says the properties are his homes in Virginia and Imperial Beach and his mother's home in Carlsbad.
During the live television appearance, Bilbray said: “I live in Carlsbad. . . . If she had the decency to ask my neighbors where I live, then she wouldn't do this.”
Busby's comments mark an escalation of her past public statements and suggest she has staked her campaign on an allegation she has yet to prove.
At an Oct. 12 news conference, Busby declined to say whether she personally believed Bilbray was under investigation. Instead, she deferred to campaign manager Ray Drew, who had told the media that several people in the Carlsbad neighborhood told him they appeared before a grand jury in August and September.
Drew declined to identify those people or a lawyer who he said represents one of them.
Since then, The San Diego Union-Tribune has asked the Busby campaign several times without success to provide evidence of an investigation, including access to alleged witnesses and subpoenas.
Earlier this month, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis confirmed her office's Public Integrity Unit had been asked by the county Democratic Party to investigate Bilbray. Dumanis declined to confirm or deny whether an investigation ever was launched.
In a Union-Tribune interview yesterday,Bilbray said he lives in Carlsbad and has no knowledge of an investigation.
“The only thing I keep hearing is the rumor-mongering that she keeps sending around . . . . I don't understand, if there's an investigation going on, why haven't I been contacted to ask what's going on,” he said.
Legal experts say, investigation or not, disputed residency is a murky and rarely prosecuted area of the law. California's Election Code provides several definitions of residency, tangled with arcane definitions of “domicile.”
“It's a tricky business,” San Diego County Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas said Thursday. The legal definitions make the question “almost a state of mind. He could say, 'I live in a park under a tree.' ”
Legal experts note that federal law does not require members of Congress to live in the districts they represent, only in the same state. As to multiple residences, “the law gives him a lot of leeway,” said Daniel Lowenstein, an election-law expert at the UCLA School of Law.
Lowenstein has not seen Bilbray's property records and said he is not a criminal-law expert.
On television, Busby and Bilbray clashed over issues that dominated the campaign earlier this year, from immigration to the environment to Iraq.
Reflecting the shifting national Republican rhetoric on Iraq, Bilbray said U.S. troops need to withdraw “as soon as possible without emboldening the terrorists to come into the United States.”
Previously, Bilbray has argued against any withdrawal timetable.
Despite the broad view that congressional Republicans are in trouble in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, many analysts see Bilbray as the favorite in the 50th District, which runs from Clairemont Mesa and La Jolla north to Carlsbad and Escondido.
In June, Bilbray defeated Busby to fill the vacancy created by the departure of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, now in federal prison for crimes related to more than $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors.
While Bilbray is favored in the heavily Republican district, Busby's chances are seen by some as improving. A recent SurveyUSA-KGTV poll gave her 46 percent support to 49 percent for Bilbray, with a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points.
Last week, The Cook Political Report, a Washington, D.C.-based newsletter, returned the 50th District to the fringes of its list of competitive House races, putting it in the “likely Republican” column, meaning it is not competitive at the moment but could become so.
Cutting against the conventional thinking, this week's Barron's magazine predicts Busby will defeat Bilbray, based on campaign finance. The latest federal reports show Busby raised $3.2 million as of Sept. 30 to Bilbray's $2 million.
VICTORY for Brian!!!
As if "You dont need papers for voting." Wasnt bad enough. Busby is shooting herself in the foot again.
He's proving himself worthy every single day. The DNC is NOT wasting million$ on Busby this time.
They're not shoveling millions to Francine? GOOD to know!
She is a real slime bag.
Bilbray was on Fox & Friends early am re the CNN snuff film. He and Hunter have been on this big time.
Francine should be ashamed of herself, but democrats have no shame.
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