Randy "Duke" Cunningham's former congressional district, which encompasses a conservative swath north of San Diego, is normally solidly Republican. Not any more, apparently.
The Duke Resigns
In addition to being a regular contributor to Kos and Blame-America-First liberal Democrat, I am also on the email list for several right-wing groups. One letter I got recently was from Howard Kaloogian, who is running to replace the Dukestir. The Democratic candidate is Francine Busby.
This is great news since the April 11th Special Election for the 50th Congressional District will be the FIRST Congressional Race in the nation.
That means it will be a key determinate as to who controls Congress in the 2006 elections - the Republicans or the Democrats.
The Democrat candidate, Francine Busby, has raised over $520,000. To date Kaloogian has raised about $225,000 and there is precious time to make up that gap.
Despite being a right-wing idiot, Kaloogian does make an interesting point in one regard. The election will be the first of 2006, and therefore will likely serve as a bellweather of the Democrats' chances in November. If we could take a solidly conservative seat, the media and the public would recognize the major upset, and thus, recognize the Democrats as a viable governing alternative to the Republicans, and the Republicans would be playing defense.
To underscore just how concerned the Republicans are about this seat, check out another letter I got from Mr. Kaloogian, one week ago.
I've been trying to impress upon all of you for the past several weeks that the Democrats are going to throw everything they can into this election cycle to
repeal Republican control of the Congress, stop the war against terrorism, pull American troops out of Iraq in surrender, and conduct impeachment proceedings against President Bush.
And the first place the Democrat party is going to take aim is on April 11th, 2006 in the Special Election to fill the vacant congressional seat once held by Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
We are working very hard to win this campaign - to defeat the anti-war liberal Democrat candidate, Francine Busby.
But I have to tell you at times I worry about the daunting challenge before us. The entire Democrat establishment is lining up to pour in the resources to win this race for their party.
And I need to match every volunteer or paid precinct worker the Democrats mobilize in this campaign. I need to match every TV or radio ad the Democratsbroadcast. And I need to match every mailpiece the Democrats mail out to voters.
Won't you please help me do this?
Another reason to dislike Cunningham: before he resigned from Congress after agreeing to plead guilty to receiving millions of dollars in bribes from defense contractors, he participated in the Swift-boating of John Kerry!
[...]The two delivered the letter around 1 p.m. EDT. It was signed by nine Democratic U.S. senators who are also war veterans urging Bush to condemn the Swift boat ads (search) that have recently dogged John Kerry's (search) presidential campaign.
"As veterans of the armed services, we ask that you recognize this blatant attempt at character assassination and publicly condemn it," the letter to Bush says.
Jerry Patterson, the Texas state land commissioner and a U.S. Marine who served in 1972-73, greeted the duo and handed back to Cleland and Rassmann a letter for Kerry signed by Reps. Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee; Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., who spent 21 years in the Navy and Sam Johnson, R-Texas, who spent 28 years in the Air Force. Others who signed the letter are Robert O'Malley and James Fleming, who both received Medals of Honor for their service in the Marine Corps during Vietnam, retired Lt. Col. Richard Castle and Lt. Gen. Dave Palmer, a former superintendent at West Point. Officials said the two men were to be invited into the staff compound at the president's ranch and offered a discussion with Palmer and Patterson.
Patterson claims that Cleland refused to give him the Democrats' letter to Bush.
The letter from the president's supporters says Kerry cannot claim to be a war hero while also claiming that he and his crewmates committed atrocities against the Vietnamese people. They also caution him against trying to silence his critics.
Howard says this special-election is "great news"; let's prove him right!
Help Francine!
