Free Republic

CARLSBAD, Calif. - Republicans seized on Democrat Francine Busby's comments that sounded like encouragement for illegal immigrants to help her campaign as the GOP sought an edge in the final hours of a surprisingly close House race. Immigration looms large in the runoff election Tuesday in the San Diego-area district some 30 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. Busby's remarks, and her subsequent explanation that she misspoke, has drawn much of the attention in the race's last days. Speaking to a largely Hispanic audience last Thursday, Busby faced a Spanish-speaking questioner who said he wanted to help her campaign but lacked...

By-election defeat could signal disaster for Bush By Tim Reid The Republicans are alarmed after polls show that voters may turn against them in one of their strongholds A US by-election tomorrow to replace a jailed Congressman in a traditionally safe Republican seat is too close to call, an alarming sign for President Bush and his party ahead of November’s mid-term elections.

Conservatives, nationwide are getting angry about the loss of principle by GOP'ers in office. Big spending in Washington and Sacramento. The inability to control illegal aliens. Failure to protect jobs and the failure to stop the social agenda of liberals in our schools in finally causing conservatives to say NO to GOP incumbents, even if it means we could lose seats in a legislative body. The thought is simple, why protect a Republican running for office if their voting record will differ little from the Democrats. In Utah, GOP Congressman Chris Cannon could not win his Parties endorsement for re-election--his...

SAN DIEGO -- It is now more than just mudslinging in the race for the 50th Congressional District. Wednesday, the Democratic Party called for an investigation into allegations of perjury and voter fraud against Republican candidate Brian Bilbray. Democrats said the proof is in property records from three homes and Bilbray’s declaration of candidacy. These are serious allegations against a man who has run a campaign saying San Diego is and always will be his home. The ad states San Diego is the home where Republican congressional candidate Bilbray said he lives. “I live in Carlsbad, taking care of my...

Republican businessman Eric Roach announced he would be "standing down" in the 50th District Congressional race and stop campaigning for the seat to try to ensure a Republican victory. “Maintaining the Republican majority in Congress is a vital goal this year, and a loss here in the 50th Congressional district to a liberal Democrat like Francine Busby would send the wrong signal across our great nation,” he announced in a statement read to reporters in a conference call. Roach did not speak in the call; instead Stan Devereux, his communications director, read his statement and answered questions. In the statement,...

Busby outpaces GOP pack, falls short of outright win Republican Bilbray appears headed for June 6 runoff election By John Marelius UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER Democrat Francine Busby speaks at her Election Night party at the D Street Bar and Grill in Encinitas. SAN DIEGO – Democrat Francine Busby easily led the field of 18 candidates seeking to replace disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham Tuesday and will face a June 6 runoff, apparently with Republican Brian Bilbray. Bilbray, a former San Diego congressman, clung to a slim lead over businessman Eric Roach with most of the ballots tabulated. The returns...

WASHINGTON – The San Diegans whom Brian Bilbray hopes to represent in the 50th Congressional District are a different bunch than those he represented during the six years he served on Capitol Hill. But should this former mayor and county supervisor return to Washington, few expect his focus to change much. More likely than not, the South Bay-spawned Republican would remain the hard-line border enforcer, the environmental advocate who battles Mexican sewage, and the guy on whom the GOP can usually depend when it comes to defense votes, but not when it comes to social issues. “Brian is his own...

During the 2000 and 2004 election cycles, liberal journalists showed just how desperate they were to defeat the Republican candidate for president, George W. Bush. Journalistic standards? Gone. Objectivity? Gone. Not even a pretense for fair and balanced reporting anywhere on the airwaves or in print. There was the last-minute DUI scandal, forged memos used by Dan Rather to question Bush's National Guard service, the supposed stolen munitions in Iraq that were supposed to be the fault of the Bush administration's incompetence. No longer denying their liberal bias, mainstream media anchors and reporters openly expressed their contempt for Bush and...

Busby Campaign Relying on Out of State “Activists” to Tell San Diegans How to Vote SAN DIEGO – With polls showing liberal Democrat candidate Francine Busby failing in her attempt to win the 50th congressional district seat on April 11th, San Diego Republican leader Ron Nehring blasted the Busby campaign today for relying on out of state left-wing activists who are being urged to call San Diego voters and tell them how to vote. The ultraliberal anti-war group MoveOn.org is urging left-wing activists around the nation to “call voters in her CA district to help Busby” in an e-mail distributed...

SAN MARCOS ----- There's been a deluge of TV advertising, extensive newspaper and TV coverage and one candidate forum after the other. And yet, one can only wonder how many voters have had the time or energy to educate themselves on the qualifications, political beliefs and personalities of all of the 18 candidates in the running for the 50th District Congressional seat formerly held by disgraced Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham. With less than three weeks until the April 11 special election to pick a temporary replacement for Cunningham, the latest opportunity for voters to get to know the candidates came...

WASHINGTON – It has to be rough right now, being a lobbyist in the nation's capital. Perhaps it is also rough being Brian Bilbray. He's the congressman-turned-lobbyist-turn-ed-congressional candidate who must convince voters that he is part of the solution to the ethically challenged climate on Capitol Hill, rather than part of the problem. As tales of bribery dominate the headlines and lawmakers scramble to curb the influence lobbyists have on Congress, Bilbray finds himself unique among the 50th District candidates for his experience as a member of Congress, and as a lobbyist seeking to influence members. “If you're a lobbyist,...

In their battle to replace former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, Republicans are embracing their party's ideals while distancing themselves from its record in Washington. As deficits balloon and scandals multiply under a Republican-controlled Congress, these candidates are touting independence over party loyalty and lashing out at the GOP as often as they criticize Democrats. Setting the tone is millionaire businessman Eric Roach, whose television commercials ask, “When did Congress begin losing touch?” “I think it began when Republicans quit being Republicans,” Roach answers in the ad. “You know, they were sent to Congress to bring the budget in balance, to...

The irony is acute. Plus, it makes a cute lead. In 1993, Howard Kaloogian, a 32-year-old Carlsbad estate attorney, wrote a strongly worded letter to this newspaper correcting a reader's misleading take on the preamble to the Constitution. The passionate statement of bedrock conservative principle caught the eye of Bill Morrow, then the assemblyman representing the 73rd District, who called Kaloogian and suggested he run for an open Assembly seat in the 74th. A Reagan-adoring Republican with a razor-keen interest in politics, young Kaloogian took Morrow's advice and, to the shock and chagrin of GOP moderates, outpolled the crowded primary...