Francine Busby will make it official later this week that she plans to re-run (for the 3rd time) against the Republican incumbant in California's 50 Congressional District. She has yet to win any of these elections, but the third time could be the charm.
A little more after the fold.
Francine Busby originally ran against indicted Congressmen Randy "Duke" Cunningham for this reliable Republican district several cycles ago. After losing to the popular Republican Congressmen (Vietnam pilot, friend of veterans, whatever), she was running again versus Cunningham when his political undoings started appearing on the front pages of the San Diego Union newspaper.
When it was all said and done, Duke was headed to jail, and professional lobbyist and previous Congressmen of a different San Diego district who had been defeated, Brian Bilbray decided to use his mom's address as his place of residence and run for the empty CA-50th seat in a special election. Bilbray defeated Busby in the special election (small turnout), and then again in the general a few months later. Busby ran a good grassroots campaign, but had some blunders that definately did not help her cause down the stretch.
Now, several years later, Busby is going to announce this Thursday April 16th that she is again running against Brian Bilbray. This is based on a mall email I received this morning from Francine Busby herself.
I think this is extremely good news. Busby has continued to be very active in the San Diego community over the past three plus years. She has a good following of volunteers that will hit the streets hard for her. She has been vocal on local politics here continuously now for something like 8 years, which means more people have recognition of her. And, I believe she will be a better candidate for all she has endured over the past 3 failed elections. You throw on that the fact that the CA-50th district voted for Barack Obama over John McCain and that San Diego County actually has more registered Democrats then Republicans, and the time is right for a Democratic candidate to win this previously reliable red district.