With a special election in California today, I asked Congressional Quarterly's Greg Giroux to give us his thoughts on what to watch as results come in.
There is a special House election in California's 50th District, a Republican-leaning area in and around San Diego where Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham resigned in December after pleading guilty to charges of accepting bribes from defense contractors. Eighteen candidates -- 14 Republicans, two Democrats and two other candidates -- qualified for the single-ballot, all-party contest, which requires a majority vote to win outright. Otherwise, the top vote-getters from each party advance to a runoff election on June 6. No candidate is expected to win a majority in today's balloting, though Democrat Francine Busby, an educator who lost to Cunningham in 2004, almost certainly will finish first. The National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP campaign organization, is airing television advertisements attacking Busby. It is unclear which Republican will finish second overall to Busby and earn the GOP berth in the June 6 election. The huge GOP field includes current and former officeholders such as former Rep. Brian Bilbray (1995-2001), former state Rep. Howard Kaloogian, state Sen. Bill Morrow and former Del Mar mayor Richard Earnest. Wealthy businessman Eric Roach, Alan Uke and Bill Hauf have spent heavily from their own pockets.
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