CA-50: Open Seat

by Chris Bowers, Fri Jul 15, 2005 at 08:49:20 AM EDT

The Republican culture of corruption continues:A California congressman who is under federal investigation for his dealings with a defense contractor announced Thursday that he would not seek re-election.

Rep. Randy Cunningham made the disclosure at a hastily arranged news conference.

"The time has come for me to conclude the public chapter in my life," said the eight-term San Diego-area Republican, whose term ends in January 2007. "Quite simply, right now I may not be the strongest candidate."

Cunningham, 63, has been shadowed by questions about his relationship with Mitchell Wade, the founder of MZM Inc., a defense firm.

The CA-50 is lean Rep by aorund ten points or so (Bush 53.9% in 2000, probably a bit higher in 2004). This seat will not be easy, but since it is open and since there is a cloud of corrutpion hanging over it, it is definately doable.

Tags: House 2006 (all tags)

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11 Comments

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Corruption and House elections
The Republicans made corruption a big part of the 94 turnaround (remember the House post office and bank scndals, Dan Rostenkowski, etc.).
They gained 54 seats.  The Watergate election of 74 saw the democrats gain 42 seats.  These are easily the two big sea changes in the House in a long time.

Corruptiuon, particularly pervasive corruption has political bite.  Once the blood is in the water, our chance will be here to take the House back.

by David Kowalski 2005-07-15 09:26AM | 0 recs
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Three
  1. The second link (voting history) goes to the same place as the first (news story).

  2. I think the Duke-Stir may wind up resigning. If so, will we have another special election on our hands?

  3. Oh how I wish the House Dems would grow a spine and just start filing ethics complaints already!
by DavidNYC 2005-07-15 09:31AM | 0 recs
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Re: Three
1. Fixed.

2. I hope he resigns too. A special election would be our best chance, and a lot more fun.

3. Yeah, I know

by Chris Bowers 2005-07-15 09:34AM | 0 recs
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Re: Three
Besides corruption, Chris,what are some other critical issues that will affect that seat? Unemployment? Gay Right? Minmum Wage? Taxes?
by Bruticus 2005-07-15 09:42AM | 0 recs
Kombiz_twitter
2004 Results
This is from the SOS website. Kerry - 43.9%; Bush - 55.2% As a reference Boxer took 48.1, and Bill Jones took 48.2% in the district.
by Kombiz Lavasany 2005-07-15 09:41AM | 0 recs
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If Jones beat Boxer in the district...
...it's probably not winnable for us.  Sorry.  Jones was such a weak canidate that this is a good barometer.
by Geotpf 2005-07-18 01:11AM | 0 recs
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Busby
Francine Busby was/is planning on re-running for the seat on  the Dem side.  She has her 2006 site already up, which is really just the 2004 site, but at least we don't have to start from the beginning and try to find qualified candidates to run.

Busby2006

by jonahinnyc 2005-07-15 09:51AM | 0 recs
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this is so winnable
San Diegans are reeling right now. It's not just Dukescandal. The conservative mayor of San Diego just had to resign after majorly screwing up the city's finances.
by quoi 2005-07-15 03:08PM | 0 recs
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I can tell yah...
Reporting in from CA-50:

We progressives have been waiting for him to screw up.  We have a conservative local paper that rarely reports news regarding his choices.  Very Republican  friendly.

An open seat is good.  I'd almost rather he try and run with his damaged reputation.  He receives most of his campaign cash from large Military groups and out of state pacs.  NO local cash.

Francine Busby has tons of local support and donors.    She's done extremely well for a grass roots campaign with only volunteers and no help from the DNC.  Now with DFA, DCCC, and DNC digging in, she will have tons of people to endorse and shovel money to her campaign.

Plus, she has a head start on any challenger.

http://macromayhem.blogspot.com

by macromayhem 2005-07-15 09:04PM | 0 recs
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Let Me Be The First To Say This Is BAD News
Whatever gain the Dems receieved from this egregious display of Republican corruption will yield no payoff down the line.

Let me explain myself--it is not that the Duke-stir was worth going after: he is as dirty as they come.

It is that we went after him TOO EARLY. Instead of a race with national exposure against a scandal-tarred incumbent, we get an early retirement. And lest we forget, the bench strength in the 50th is almost entirely Republican.

I suspect that Busby's river of money will dry up now that her opponent will be a non-scandal tarred challenger like Howard Kaloogian instead of the tainted incumbent himself, the Duke-stir.

Also, the national impact of this will be muted because by October of 2006, when the majority of American voters start to pay attention, this incident will be 16 months old. It will be old news, and I just don't think voters will still be worked into an appropriate lather over it.

I hope I am wrong...but I think we might have shot our wad a little early on this one. I smell a 55-45 win for Kaloogian or another GOPer over Busby.

by Singiser 2005-07-17 11:00AM | 0 recs
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It is bad news
We would have a shot at winning if he was the caniate; I don't think we do now that he's not.  But the timing was out of our control-the news broke in the papers when it broke.
by Geotpf 2005-07-18 01:13AM | 0 recs

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