Busby Jumps to Major Fundraising Lead Over Bilbray

The race to succeed corrupt former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham is nearing a close with election day less than two weeks away and judging both by the polling and the fundraising numbers, this is definitely a race that the Democrats can win.

No doubt most of us have seen the ten day old Democratic poll (.pdf) that showed Democrat Francine Busby leading former GOP Congressman Brian Bilbray by a statistically significant 47 percent to 40 percent margin. Less publicized is the fact that Busby has been just dominant in the fundraising race, as Erica Werner reports for the AP.
(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/05/25/state/n212040D93.DTL&type=politics)


Democrat Francine Busby is outraising Republican Brian Bilbray in the high-spending California race to replace disgraced ex-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham in Congress, campaign finance reports filed Thursday show. Busby had raised $2.25 million as of May 17, including $755,139 in the most recent fundraising period. She ended the reporting period with about $185,000 in cash on-hand to take her through the June 6 election. Bilbray had raised just over $1 million in his bid for the San Diego area seat, including $630,055 in the most recent period. He ended up with just over $100,000 on-hand.

http://www.mydd.com/

bilbray is just a run of the mill "conservative" hack, in it for the money and in it for the hate. He's a typical "conservative" of the 21st century. Whup his ass Francine.

I see opportunities like this popping up across the US. SHe has an uphill battle but it is possible. My guess is that this thread will sink like a stone, while the latest "I am DONE with dems" thread gets a ton of support. I'd love to be proven wrong on this.

at least for the next few weeks.

But threads about Francine die on the vine.

Threads about "Truthout" or lionizing various irrelevant people get major attention.

Some DU'ers have extremely fucked up priorities.

You made me post a kick ....

:kick:

...... is it local or is it national, given the spotlight and the unusual nature of this race?

Please don't read anything negative into that question. I just want to know if the funding pattern we're seeing here is indicative of the rest of the midterm races or if its just the spotlight effect on this one race.

I don't know where her contributions have actually come from but have gotten contribution request emails for her from Barbara Boxer, John Conyers, and (I think) John Kerry during the last several weeks. The emails have focused on how "winnable" this race is and the fact that Darth Cheney was fundraising for her opponent.

if she can win a district that conservative, that would be very impressive regardless of where the money is coming from.

I was more intereted in knowing how much money she's raising locally. If she's getting local money in a district **that** red, it portends well for the larger national midterms.

She has been fundraising for years on the local level, but now the big money has been pouring in from all over.

She has the best chance of any Democratic candidate in decades to win the 50th. (I live next door in the 49th and I have known Francine since the 2004 election when I worked on the Dem. in the 49th campaign).

but she's been going to fundraisers non stop on a local basis. She is a terrific stump speaker, very energetic and she wins everyone over in small settings. I don't know the breakdown, but much of her funds have been raised in small get togethers at people's homes.

This is one that must be won, and clearly can be won!

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

Check out his column today!

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=15188

Busby's campaign has told us that recent polls they've taken of the race have shown 100% name recognition for Busby. The minutemen have endorsed independent Griffith running in the special election instead of Bilbray's campaign which is almost solely focused on immigration. And Bill Hauf hasn't been apologizing for running against Bilbray in the primary even though Roach dropped out earlier to avoid that sort of conflict.

Bilbray's in trouble.

:thumbsup: