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07 June 2006 Blog Home : June 2006 : Permalink

AP - Crow 2 Go or Eat in?

Last night AP had an article about the San Diego House special election with a distinctly wishful title and lede:

Dems look to win House seat in Calif.

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. - Democrats in a solidly Republican district hoped to capitalize on a GOP corruption scandal and capture the House seat Tuesday that was held by Randy "Duke" Cunningham before he went to prison for bribery.

Democrat Francine Busby, a local school board member who ran against Cunningham in 2004, competed against Republican Brian Bilbray, a former congressman, in a race that was considered a toss-up in its closing days.

unfortunately, as predicted by Dafydd at Big Lizards, it looks like this is "win" in the sense of coming second in a two horse race, as AP now reports that:

Republican wins bellwether House race

By ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer 6 minutes ago

A former Republican congressman narrowly beat his Democratic rival early Wednesday for the right to fill the House seat once held by imprisoned Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a race closely watched as a possible early barometer of next fall's vote.

Republican Brian Bilbray emerged victorious after a costly and contentious race against Democrat Francine Busby, a local school board member who ran against Cunningham in 2004. [...] The race — one of dozens of election contests in eight states — was viewed by Democrats as an opportunity to capture a solidly Republican district and build momentum on their hopes to capture control of the House.

One of the interesting points here is that the AP repeatedly reports that a lot of money was spent and hints that the loss was due to the expenditure and another is the way that for democrats "close" apparently counts as "win" - in other words getting their excuses in early - as the initial article explains:

Democrats spent nearly $2 million on the high-stakes contest, and the GOP spent more than $4 million. President Bush and first lady Laura Bush recorded automated telephone messages for Bilbray. A mass e-mailing from Sen. John Kerry, the party's 2004 presidential candidate, was sent last week to more than 100,000 supporters, urging them to help get out the vote.

Al Gore also recorded a phone message telling Democrats to go to the polls.

Cunningham's downfall threatened to upset the electoral balance in this longtime GOP stronghold, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats 3-to-2. Cunningham pleaded guilty last year to accepting $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors and was sentenced in March to more than eight years in prison.

Well before Election Day, some Democrats claimed victory just by forcing a fight for the seat.

"If I get close, then we've made the point that this is no longer a safe seat, but it's not enough," Busby said in a recent interview. "We want to win."

and of course there is the lovely unbiased discussion about the illegal immigation issue where the AP can't help getting in a snide dig at the republican and defending the democrat:

Busby said repeatedly that she misspoke [ed:about illegal immigrants voting]. She said she had been trying to encourage underage high school students or people who were not registered — but are in the country legally — to participate in the political process.

Bilbray called for constructing a fence "from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico" and barring illegal immigrants from collecting Social Security benefits. His Web site does not oppose a guest-worker program and offers no plan for treatment of the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the country.




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