The Democrats had hoped to pick up a congressional seat in California after the Republican congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham plead guilty to bribery and was sent to prison. Didn't happen! The Democrats campaigned on the "culture of corruption" but one bad apple does not a political party make and the voters know it. Yesterday in the special election to replace Cunningham the Republicans held the seat in the 50th California Congressional District (northern San Diego). This morning on Good Morning America they barely mentioned the outcome and did not even mention that Bilbray was a Republican. If the Democrats had won they would have led off with the story and talked about how it was a preview of a Democratic "take over" of the US House in the fall election . They would have brought in former Clinton strategist George Stephanopoulus (now ABC's chief Washington Correspondent) to crow about the results and talk about how it was a bellwether for the fall. But not today..... no Stephanopoulus! The Republicans won so it was a non story. The Democratic candidate , Francine Busby, made a big mistake in the final days of the campaign and told a Hispanic audience that they could vote even if they were not US Cistizens. Her exact words were: "Everybody can help. You can all help. You don't need papers for voting, you don't need to be a registered voter to help."
The Democrats are trying to spin this as a moral victory because Busby beat John Kerry's vote in 2004. As National review says"
The glass isn't half full. It's half full with magical water:
This morning, Democrats are pointing out that national Republicans were forced to spend millions on this race in a GOP-leaning district, and that Busby outperformed John Kerry (who got 44% in the district in 2004) while Bilbray underperformed Bush. "In an election cycle that is shaping up to be a change vs. the status quo contest, Francine Busby has shown that a strong change message can make even former members of Congress vulnerable in deeply red Republican districts," House Democratic campaign spokeswoman Sarah Feinberg tells First Read.
The DCCC is giddy over a 1.5% increase in Busby's tally over Kerry? Money will talk. Let's see if the DCCC keeps the cash register open for Busby in November.
That's right, there will be a repeat of this race in November because this special election was only to fill out the remainder of Cunningham's term.
