Busby Boosts Bilbray

I've commented recently on the Congressional special election in San Diego on Tuesday. It's generally been felt that this would be a very hard race for Republicans to lose, but in the last week or two there's been speculation that Francine Busby could indeed pull an upset. Such a victory would be regarded as a strong indicator that Republicans are headed for trouble in November.

After the news that hit today, a Busby win on Tuesday will be even more shocking. It seems that Ms. Busby has been caught on tape encouraging illegal immigrants to help her campaign, saying 'you don't need papers to vote.'

The immigration issue has been key in this race, and Brian Bilbray was seen as a strong candidate here based on his tough record on illegal immigration during his previous tenure in the House. Busby had tried to paint him as 'soft' on illegal immigration however. Well, looks like that appeal is likely to fall on deaf ears. And Ms. Busby will spend the last few days of the campaign explaining how her comments were 'taken out of context.'

Update: Critics have pointed out that Ms. Busby's comments are not definitively addressed to illegal immigrants. This is true. Thus I want to provide more detail. In addressing a Spanish-speaking audience through a translator, Ms. Busby said:

"Well sure, everybody can help. Yeah, absolutely. You can all help. Yeah, you don’t need papers for voting, you don’t need to be a registered voter to help."

Draw your own conclusions.

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