Free Republic

After a Republican victory in the hotly contested House runoff election, political analysts are pointing to a single sentence in a campaign ad as a key factor in the final days of the race. Democrat Francine Busby, accused during the campaign of taking a soft line on illegal immigration, was told by a man at a largely Hispanic rally that he wanted to help her campaign but didn't have voting papers. The man spoke in Spanish through an interpreter. Busby responded in English: "Everybody can help. You can all help. You don't need papers for voting, you don't need to...

Republican Brian Bilbray believes he rode a wave of anti-illegal-immigration sentiment to defeat Democrat Francine Busby and replace imprisoned former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in the 50th Congressional District. “The biggest scandal facing the U.S. isn't Cunningham,” Bilbray said yesterday, “but the 11 to 12 million illegal aliens in our country. That's what people feel impacts their lives.” Cunningham resigned in November after pleading guilty to tax evasion and conspiracy related to taking $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. Bilbray's win Tuesday reverberated in Washington yesterday and spurred political analysts across the nation to consider its implications for November's...

Stop measuring for drapes, Nancy. If Democrats can’t win a special election for a seat left open by the guilty plea of a senior Republican congressman for bribery in a political environment that can politely be described as more sour than milk left on the counter for a week, how can they expect to win back control of the House of Representatives, handing the speakership to Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)? Democrats are claiming the fact that the Republican Party had to spend $5 million to assure victory for former Rep. Brian Bilbray in California’s GOP-friendly 50th congressional district is a sign...

California Republican Brian Bilbray, who on Tuesday defeated a Democrat whom he had trailed in polls for weeks to win an open House seat, credited his comeback to his tough stance on immigration, which mirrors the stern House bill that would reject any sort of amnesty for illegal aliens.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, welcomed Representative-Elect Brian Bilbray (R-CA) to the IRC as its 98th member. Bilbray won a special election yesterday in California’s 50th district, spanning San Diego’s northern suburbs. “Brian has long been a strong advocate of secure borders and tough enforcement of immigration laws. As a former Member and a spokesperson for a non-profit reform group, Brian has worked with me on immigration and I know he’ll be a tremendous asset to my party as we try to block the Senate’s amnesty pact,” said Tancredo. Bilbray ran...

From the very beginning, the special election in the 50th Congressional District was dogged by the question of illegal immigration. Republican Brian Bilbray reclaimed a seat in the House because he maintained a markedly tougher stance against undocumented migrants than did Democrat Francine Busby. All other claims about this high-profile contest, by both Democratic and Republican operatives in Washington, are pure spin. The voters' own strong stand against illegal immigration is the national message, if there is one, in the balloting to replace imprisoned former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham. The outcome of this knockdown bout, marred by millions of dollars...

The results from California's 50th district are now in - and Republican Brian Bilbray has defeated Democrat Francine Busby in the contest to complete the tenure of Duke Cunningham. This was Busby's third try at seizing the seat. She is now 0-for-3. The two will face off again in November, but it seems highly likely that the GOP will hold the seat.Pundits and partisans across the land have examined the returns to divine some kind of meaning from them. What did the voters tell us? Many answers have been offered - not all of them valid. Many people have seen...

In politics, it's easy to mistake a mere reprieve for something more substantive. So Tuesday's election results in California shouldn't give Republicans, or Golden State taxpayers, the idea that they're out of the woods this election year. The GOP won what it's hoping is a bellwether House race in San Diego County to fill a seat that opened when former Congressman Duke Cunningham was caught taking bribes. Republican Brian Bilbray defeated Democrat Francine Busby, 49% to 45%. But it's not a good GOP omen that the National Republican Congressional Committee had to spend $5 million on the contest and that...

A Republican won a special congressional election in Southern California yesterday – so why does the Times make it sound as if the Republicans got beat? Chief political reporter Adam Nagourney’s online filing Wednesday morning on last night's electoral victory by Republican Brian Bilbray begins: “A Republican former congressman slipped to victory in a special election here Tuesday, staving off what would have been a highly embarrassing Democratic victory in a solidly Republican district. National Republicans poured in nearly $5 million and dozens of campaign workers to help hold the seat for their party.”

SAN DIEGO -- U.S. Rep.-elect Brian Bilbray's reward for a hard-fought victory is a House seat for seven months — and another campaign against the same Democrat he vanquished in a special election to fill the seat vacated by disgraced former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. While the candidates, and probably the issues, will be the same in November, there will be one major difference: Bilbray will be running as an incumbent. And that makes it even more of an uphill battle for school board member Francine Busby. Whether the race for a two-year term is as close as this week's...

If you ever had to wonder about why so many people think the Democratic Party has gone completely insane, look no further than the California spin machine insanity! After losing to Republican Brian Bilbray in California to replace the criminally convicted "Duke Cunningham," liberal Democrat Francine Busby said: "We've sent a message that there are no safe seats" ... Americans "really want change." In spite of the media talking heads trying to help spin this LOSS into a "win," let's take a good, close look at the psychotic Democratic Party. Somehow the Democratic Party has become so completely perverted,...

Any trends in these election results? A good day for scions -- Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey, George Wallace Jr. in Alabama, Chet Culver in Iowa... A mixed day for celebrity candidates -- Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore defeated for governor; Rob Reiner's pre-school initiative in California stomped like a narc at a biker rally....but Jerry Brown rises from the ashes of Oakland to win the Democratic party's nomination for California Attorney General. But what about the so-called bellwether??? No big great news for Democrats in California's special election to replace convicted criminal Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-CA....

The Democrats lost in San Diego last night in a special election many thought they would win. After all, the race was to fill a seat left vacant by a Republican congressman who had to resign when he pled guilty of corruption. President Bush’s approval rating in a California Field Poll this week is around 28% percent (the lowest in that poll’s history since just before President Nixon resigned in 1974). And in the first round of voting, the Democrat, Francine Busby got 44% of the vote and the Republican Brian Bilbray, a former congressman, led a big field of...

The Nation Magazine is trying to soft sell the election in California's 50th District of Republican Brian Bilbray who is now replacing disgraced Republican, Randy "Duke" Cunningham. And they aren’t the only one’s trying to blow off the importance to the Democratic Party’s immediate future at the polls that this election might portend. "Busby lost to Republican Brian Bilbray in a special election last night by 49 to 45 percent, in (a) heavily Republican district(s)." (For Nation Op EdClick here) But this claim of a "heavily Republican district" is not really the correct, up-to-date analysis of the district's voting trends....

'Culture of Corruption' Failed Democrats in House Race by Robert Novak Posted Jun 07, 2006 For all the hype and the money spent on the race between former Rep. Brian Bilbray (R) and Francine Busby (D), Busby, in her loss to Bilbray, failed to exceed significantly the percentage won here by John Kerry in 2004. This is significant, because although she will have another shot at Bilbray in November, the turnout should have favored her yesterday, since Republicans had no other races to drive their turnout and Democrats had a gubernatorial primary. The outcome proves that even with corrupt former...

Washington -- (06-07) 09:19 PDT The tsunami of disapproval toward President Bush and the Republican Party that Democrats hope will carry them to a House majority in November was not strong enough to ride a Democrat to victory Tuesday in a House election in San Diego. Republican Brian Bilbray received 49 percent of the vote, while Democrat Francine Busby received 45 percent in a special election to fill the seat of Randy "Duke'' Cunningham, who resigned and is now in prison after admitting he accepted millions of dollars in bribes. It was a strong showing by a Democrat in a...

A former Republican congressman Brian Bilbray has won a U.S. House of Representatives race in California on Tuesday by narrowly beating Democrat Francine Busby in a conservative district north of San Diego. The two were contending to replace Randy Cunningham, a former Republican congressman who was imprisoned for taking bribes. Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota also held primaries on Tuesday to select candidates for November, when all 435 seats in the House, 33 Senate seats and 36 governorships will be up for grabs. The news comes as the "first good dose" for the President...

Republicans claimed victory in the California special election early Wednesday morning as former Rep. Brian Bilbray led Democrat Francine Busby by four points with 96 percent of precincts reporting. The 50th District race Tuesday was a runoff pitting the top two finishers from an April election to replace disgraced former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R) and was billed as a bellwether for the upcoming general election in November, where Democrats hope they have the wind at their backs and a chance to retake Congress. But that wind wasn’t enough Tuesday in solidly-Republican San Diego, where Bilbray secured nearly 50 percent...

California 50 A break in the GOP’s clouds? By John J. Pitney Jr. For national Republicans, the special election to fill Duke Cunningham’s seat was an early check of barometric pressure. A loss would have been a sign of an approaching hurricane. But Brian Bilbray won by a respectable margin. The pressure is stable and the skies are clear—for now. In a couple of ways, the outcome was quite remarkable. As of the last FEC report, Busby had raised more money than Bilbray. And the presence of minor candidates threatened to drain crucial support from Bilbray. Accordingly, Busby made a...

When President Bush nominated Gen. Michael Hayden to run the CIA, the press focused on disapproving Democrats and even some Republicans who were dubious about confirmation. A month later, when the Senate confirmed Hayden by a 78-15 vote, the story was given much less emphasis in the media, which had moved on to other stories critical of the Bush administration. Similarly, when Bush nominated one of his aides, Brett Kavanaugh, to the federal judiciary, the press was filled with reports about Democrats threatening a filibuster because Kavanaugh once worked for special prosecutor Kenneth Starr in the case against President Clinton....