Posted on 10/04/2005 10:18:36 AM PDT by SmithL
IRVINE, Calif. - Seventeen candidates qualified for Tuesday's special election to fill the nation's only vacant House seat, but the real contest in this affluent Orange County district was between the conservative and moderate factions of the Republican party.
State Sen. John Campbell, a former car dealer endorsed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was considered the front-runner for the 48th District seat relinquished by former Rep. Christopher Cox. But Marilyn Brewer, a former state assemblywoman with the endorsement of Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, was a strong contender who hoped to upset Campbell with a coalition of votes from moderate Republicans, Democrats and Independents.
Brewer has kept her distance from President Bush and pegged her campaign to her support for abortion rights and the environment.
Third-party candidate Jim Gilchrist, running on the American Independent ticket, could erode Campbell's support among conservative Republicans who like Gilchrist's hardline views on illegal immigration.
The seat came open when Cox, a conservative 16-year veteran of the House from Newport Beach, was tapped by Bush to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The state Democratic Party has endorsed trial lawyer Steve Young, but he is not given much of a chance. Only 27 percent of the district's voters are Democrats.
Gilchrist is the co-founder of the Minuteman Project, a volunteer civilian patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border, and has repeatedly challenged Campbell's anti-immigration pedigree.
On Monday, just hours before the polls opened, Campbell sparred with Gilchrist on illegal immigration during a live one-hour radio debate and defended his record, which included a vote to give in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants.
If no candidate wins a majority, the top finishers from each party will advance to a runoff in December.
Because the primary falls on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, Orange County election officials hurriedly organized five days of early balloting at nine locations, including four synagogues.
More than 960 people - or less than 1 percent of registered voters - cast ballots at the stations by the close of early voting Thursday, said Brett Rowley, spokesman for the county Registrar of Voters. Another 48,500 people cast absentee ballots - about 12 percent, he said.
ON THE NET
Orange County Registrar of Voters: http://www.oc.ca.gov/election/
Let me get this straight. The Republicans have a choice between a guy who voted for in-state tuition for illegals and a McCain 'Republican' ??? And Gilchrist is running in a 3d party?? The Dems must be laughing their ass off.
I’d be tempted to vote Gilchrist, but don’t think he’ll get all that much support.
Whatever.
According to Campbell his vote was a mistake. He voted in-state tuition for illegals who were in the process of obtaining citizenship – then they changed the text to leave out the citizenship ‘process’ thing altogether. All they do is ask the illegal if he wants to become a citizen, he says ‘yes’ and wallah.. in-state tuition benefits. Campbell defended his record on ‘being tough on illegal immigration’ rather convincingly
Well, the Republican Party is pro illegal immigration.
Why is it such a shock that one of their candidates for Congress is too?
You gotta vote your conscience.
He calls himself a "new California Republican," bucking the "moderate" and "conservative" titles assigned to party members."I'm not even sure I know what (moderate and conservative) mean sometimes," he said. "The minute you use those labels, people get an image."
Campbell favors school vouchers, but only in poor areas. He opposes abortion rights, but is not willing to create a law to ban them. And he says illegal immigrants should be given the same benefits as everyone else, since the federal government has not controlled the border to prevent the immigrants from coming in.
On local issues, Campbell...wants to make sure all schools receive the same amount of money and wants to ensure that the coastline stays clean.
Orange County Register. Santa Ana, Calif.: Aug 11, 2005
"[Campbell voted] in 2001 in favor of allowing undocumented residents who have been in California for a number of years to pay the state-resident fee at state universities.""[He explained] Republicans who voted for the bill were fooled into believing it would only apply to people who were on the verge of being sworn in as citizens. Later, he said, they learned it would be applied to anyone who simply said he wanted to be an American."
My guess is that no candidate has put a day into the military...
http://www.jimgilchrist.com./about.php
Jim is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and recipient of the Purple Heart award for wounds sustained while serving with an infantry unit in Vietnam, 1968 - 1969.
Steve Young would do fine, IMO.
I looked at his website and he looks like fun.
Earlier in the day I was driving down Culver and saw one of his signs. It cracked me up because it says “save the middle class.” LOL.
Last I looked, “middle class” was something like $45-$57K or thereabouts. That, for *household,* not single-earner or head of household.
I started thinking about that. The 48th district covers Irvine, Newport Beach, Looney Hills – that general area.
I don’t think there’s any *true* middle class here to save, so it shouldn’t be much of a problem to address. Hell - everybody around here has at least one car (and often two or three or four) that cost more than an entire “middle class” family sees in an entire year, total.
That little 350Z will eat up that much money once they get the fancy wheels and trim and fill it up. Meanwhile, there are plenty of Corvettes and Porsches and the occasional Lamborghini rolling around - not to mention Lexus/BMW/Mercedes by the THOUSANDS.
I think it would be entertaining to point things like that out to him. Could probably come up with some catchy slogans of my own: “Save the middle class – but keep them in Willow Brook.” Something like that.
It’s an interesting delusion people have. They want to consider themselves “working class” or “middle class” or “average” – meanwhile they’re sitting up in a $1.2 million house, have $200K worth of cars in the driveway and garage, probably have another $50K worth of bicycles and surf boards and skis and dirt bikes and those ski-doo watercraft things and camping gear they never use in the garage, etc.
Then you have to understand that they have three kids and each and every kid has its own room and own bathroom and each and every kid has his own computer in that room and has his own TV set with DVD player and own phone line - on and on and on and on.
LOL. The closest they get to "middle class" is printing it on their campaign sign.
Touche', I meant specifically the republicans. I should have been more specific.
Turnout light in early 48th District voting
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_700984.php
But total will include 46,500 absentee and early-voting ballots in the race to replace Rep. Christopher Cox.
--snip--
If any candidate gets 50 percent plus one vote, that person will automatically become the next House member from the coastal Newport Beach-based district. If not, a general election will be held Dec. 6 and the top vote-getters from each party will be on that ballot.
The candidates for this race:
Republicans:
• Marilyn Brewer
• John Campbell
• David R. Crouch
• John Kelly
• Scott MacCabe
• Marsha A. Morris
• Guy E. Mailly
• Marshall Samuel Sanders*
• Edward Suppe
• Don Udall*
Democrats:
• Bea Foster
• John Graham
• Tom Pallow
• Steve Young
Third party:
• Bruce Cohen (Libertarian)
• Jim Gilchrist (American Independent)
• Bea Tiritilli (Green)
Write-ins:
• Delecia Holt (Republican)
• Steven Wesley Blake (Republican)
* These candidates have withdrawn from the race, but their names will appear on the ballot.
Orange County Registrar of Voters: http://www.oc.ca.gov/election/
48th Congressional District Primary Election Results
http://www.oc.ca.gov/election/live/e26/results.htm
Looks like a good thread to use later when results roll in.. may need to move it to Breaking this evening.
Schwarzenegger is endorsing the "conservative?" What happened?
Unofficial Results for Election
| Registration and Turnout |
| Completed Precincts: 92 of 268 |
| Reg/Turnout | Percentage | |
| Total Registered Voters | 402006 | |
| Precinct Registration | 402006 | |
| Precinct Ballots Cast | 12810 | 3.2% |
| Early Ballots Cast | 962 | 0.2% |
| Absentee Ballots Cast | 47440 | 11.8% |
| Total Ballots Cast | 61212 | 15.2% |
| UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE 48th District |
| Vote Count | Percentage | |
| JOHN CAMPBELL (REP) | 29681 | 48.9% |
| MARILYN C. BREWER (REP) | 9607 | 15.8% |
| JIM GILCHRIST (AI) | 6313 | 10.4% |
| STEVE YOUNG (DEM) | 5831 | 9.6% |
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