Eyes on Bilbray in California Special

Next Tuesday voters in California's 50th District will pick a replacement for Congressman Duke Cunningham. Former Congressman Brian Bilbray is the Republican nominee, and would normally be heavily favored. However, because of ambivalence about the President and an unusually strong Democratic nominee, Bilbray's only a alight favorite to retain the seat (and even that depends on who you talk to).

Others have written on this race, but I thought I would call attention to the big spending by the National Republican Congressional Committee in this race - reportedly $4.5 million. If Bilbray holds on to win the seat, there's no doubt it will be partly because of the ability of the NRCC to finance the race. It's all the more reason that Democrats should be concerned about the horrible mismanagement of Howard Dean at the DNC.

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