Posted on 04/11/2006 12:16:46 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN DIEGO - Eighteen candidates in a solidly GOP district on the Southern California coast competed in a special election Tuesday for the congressional seat once held by Randy "Duke" Cunningham, now in prison for bribery.
Brian Bilbray, a former congressman-turned-lobbyist who was the choice of the GOP establishment; Republican businessman Eric Roach, who spent $1.8 million of his own money; and Democrat Francine Busby were considered the front-runners.
Cunningham represented the House district from 1993 until he resigned in disgrace late last year. In March, the former Vietnam War fighter ace was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors.
Tuesday's race had a wide-open ballot, with 14 Republicans, two Democrats, one Libertarian and one independent. If no one got more than 50 percent of the vote, the top finisher from each party would compete in a runoff June 6.
The winner will serve out the remaining eight months of Cunningham's term, and will almost certainly try to hold on to the seat come November.
Republicans outnumber Democrats 3-to-2 in the wealthy district.
If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the top finisher from each party competes in a June 6 contest, the same day as the primary for the midterm congressional elections.
An outright winner Tuesday or, more likely, the winner of the June contest takes a seat in Congress for the remaining eight months of Cunningham's term — and likely immediately begins campaigning to hold on to the seat come November.
With the GOP field crowded, Democrats hoped that Busby, who ran and lost to Cunningham in 2004, could score an upset, a prospect that her own campaign acknowledged was unlikely.
Voters faced an onslaught of negative campaign mailers and TV ads in the final hours before heading to the polls.
Bilbray, a surfer and one-time lifeguard, was attacked in a mailer from the California Republican Assembly, a grass-roots conservative group, that called Bilbray "a Democrat posing as a Republican."
The Bilbray campaign attacked Roach as a mystery man trying to buy an election. "His political campaign ads and mailers are everywhere. But until a few months ago, no one had ever heard of him," Bilbray's mailer said.
Former state Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian's campaign attempted to recover from an embarrassing misstep. Internet bloggers discovered that photos on his campaign Web site purportedly showing a tranquil Iraqi street scene had been taken in Istanbul, Turkey. The photos were removed.
With the GOP field busy attacking itself, national Republicans poured some $300,000 during the campaign's final week into TV ads criticizing Busby for accepting donations from lobbyists. A mailer from national Republicans claimed that the school board member and self-described soccer mom had voted to lay off teachers in 2003.
Busby retaliated by noting that Cunningham had given $2,000 of his campaign funds to national Republicans before he headed off to prison.
If the Republican Party in CA had adopted a consistent policy against illegal immigration-and run on that unambiguous platform-then perhaps there would less marginal congressional seats in that state, Brian Bilbray would still be congressman from that part of San Diego, and a more socially conservative Republican would be electable in this district.
I wouldn't call it his. Wilson jumped on the already rolling 187 bandwagon to exploit it as a wedge issue.
Didn't know about the election, but ABC News last hour had the results on. Saying the Rat won, but later mentioned that a runoff would be required because she didn't receive 50% of the vote. Made it sound like turning the Pubbie seat over to the Dims was a fait accompli.
No. "proof" would be polling showing that large numbers of conservatives are making such plans down there -- enough to affect the outcome. That's the allegation that I originally responded to.
I hope socalpol is wrong.
We need to keep the seat GOP.
Interesting that despite having the backing of the "GOP Establishment", Bilbray picked up only 28% of the Republican vote. 71% of Republicans chose the more conservative candidates. Of course, Roach's megamillion $ campaign certainly made a difference.
Turnout was low--35.5%
Turnout didn't help .. too much politicking turns folks off, it seems.
Registration and Turnout
Completed Precincts: 723 of 723
STATE SENATOR 35th District
Vote Count Percentage
TOM HARMAN (REP) 34160 38.8%
DIANE HARKEY (REP) 33630 38.2%
LARRY CABALLERO (DEM) 20210 23.0%
Reg/Turnout Percentage
Total Registered Voters 513832
Precinct Registration 513832
Precinct Ballots Cast 25040 4.9%
Absentee Ballots Cast 63585 12.4%
Total Ballots Cast 88625 17.2%
I was nervous about the 50th due to all of the blather on the national news...so glad Busby didn't get the 50%...that would have been really scary. I knew we were in trouble when about 15 "in the know" people called me for advice as to who to vote for for the State Senate seat. The blanket bad blood from both sides just turned everybody off to the point where they couldn't even take in who to choose. We have got to quite that within the party or we will lose. Thanks for the numbers...530 vote difference...wow...that's close. Any thoughts as to how Bilbray will do in June?
FYI, here's a thread on the Harman/Harkey race and also this snippet which says it ain't over yet:
Officials still counting votes in close Orange County raceBoth GOP candidates had representatives at the registrar's office as officials counted about 10,000 absentee and provisional ballots.
About 4,700 absentee ballots arrived in the mail Tuesday and another 4,600 were dropped that day at a polling place, said Brett Rowley, spokesman for the office.
About 650 provisional ballots were filed by people not originally listed on the voting roster or who claimed they did not receive absentee ballots, Rowley said.
Officials hoped to finish the count by Thursday and certify the election results by Friday.
Oh wow...it's NOT over yet...alot could change in all of those ballots...only need 530 in one direction!
Perhaps that was 650 wrongly submitted by Harman's gang.
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