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.
And Thank You for this as well as shown in post#4..
http://www.sdvote.org/election/special.xml
Goose eggs are gone... replaced by XML error messages. :-(
(at both the county site and SDUT)
They're most likely updating. :)
They were claiming earlier,,
No glitches reported in district voting
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/50thdistrict/20060411-1325-bn11elect.html
I think I'll ping a few interested parties.... while we wait... LOL.
LIve thread--looking for life!
Here we go
== ABSENTEE RESULTS ONLY ==
SIGNONSANDIEGO
Unofficial results. Updated at 20:00:20 on 04-11-06.
US REP. 50TH DIST.
4 of 445 precincts – 00.9 percent
FRANCINE BUSBY 27332 42.23%
BRIAN P. BILBRAY 9159 14.15%
ERIC ROACH 9011 13.92%
HOWARD KALOOGIAN 4824 7.45%
BILL MORROW 4700 7.26%
ALAN UKE 2709 4.19%
RICHARD EARNEST 1729 2.67%
BILL HAUF 1116 1.72%
CHRIS YOUNG 1061 1.64%
WILLIAM GRIFFITH 665 1.03%
SCOTT TURNER 555 0.86%
VICTOR E. RAMIREZ 519 0.80%
PAUL KING 470 0.73%
JEFF NEWSOME 391 0.60%
SCOTT ORREN 182 0.28%
DELECIA HOLT 166 0.26%
BILL BOYER 95 0.15%
MILTON GALE 31 0.05%
FRANCINE BUSBY 27332 42.23% BRIAN P. BILBRAY 9159 14.15% ERIC ROACH 9011 13.92% HOWARD KALOOGIAN 4824 7.45% BILL MORROW 4700 7.26% ALAN UKE 2709 4.19% RICHARD EARNEST 1729 2.67% BILL HAUF 1116 1.72% CHRIS YOUNG 1061 1.64% WILLIAM GRIFFITH 665 1.03% SCOTT TURNER 555 0.86% VICTOR E. RAMIREZ 519 0.80% PAUL KING 470 0.73% JEFF NEWSOME 391 0.60% SCOTT ORREN 182 0.28% DELECIA HOLT 166 0.26% BILL BOYER 95 0.15% MILTON GALE 31 0.05%
I've read any many places that Howard Kaloogian was one of the three republican front-runners and also the most pro-secure borders. I hope he wins and goes on to the likely run-off.
Busby will probably go up to the high 40's, if absentees are more GOP weighted, and they usually are, but Busby put a lot of effort into absentees, so maybe no, In any event, Busby will very probably fall short of 50%. I have no idea of Bilbray or Roach will get the GOP nomination. Normally Bilbray's constituency would do better with absentees, but Raoch had more money, and Bilbray had more independents in his mix, and they don't vote as much absentee. If this holds, a huge amount of money will be spent in the general. The GOP erosion appears alive and well.
The largest conservative political organization in California.
There are approximately 360,000 registered voters. We have a way to go.
Yes, but I have watched these puppies for a long time. In any event, no more numbers for two hours.
we may have 360,000 more live threads posted before this one is done, 2 others posted so far. ;-)
They cited his voting record. Since it was so ugly, it is referred to as an "attack".
2 hours? If we're lucky. ;-)
Two hours? Thanks for that tidbit. I'll check in later!
I might add, that probably the absentees are at least half the votes, maybe 60%, if the 48th special was any leading indicator. The K man is out.
In the 48th, they had a computer glitch, that made it 3.5 hours. :(
>>we may have 360,000 more live threads posted before this one is done, 2 others posted so far. ;-)
ROFL! I hadn't looked. Oh well!
Special K should have ran for Senator.. Oh well.
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