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Republican race for Cunningham's seat remains up in the air
| Wednesday, Apr 12 2006 5:15 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Apr 12 2006 5:15 PM
The Republican Party's choice to replace jailed former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham remained up in the air Wednesday, with the two leading candidates separated by less than 900 votes and neither side claiming outright victory.
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With 100 percent of the precincts counted, lobbyist and former GOP Rep. Brian Bilbray had 19,366 votes or 15 percent of the vote in California's 50th District. Eric Roach, a venture capitalist who poured at least $1.8 million of his own money into the race, trailed with 18,486 votes or 14 percent.
County officials said 10,000 last-minute absentee and provisional ballots were being tallied, with updated results expected Thursday afternoon.
The Republican nominee will face a June runoff against Democrat Francine Busby, who advanced easily with 44 percent of the vote to lead all 18 candidates on the ballot. The winner of the June runoff will finish the final eight months of Cunningham's term - and immediately begin campaigning for November.
Cunningham represented the wealthy coastal district for 12 years before he resigned in disgrace late last year. He was sentenced in March to more than eight years in prison for accepting $2.4 million in bribes.
Tuesday's special election was closely watched in Washington as a bellwether for the upcoming November midterm elections.
Bilbray dubbed himself the "presumptive nominee" Wednesday and launched a campaign against Busby with a series of haggard-but-happy morning appearances on local TV news broadcasts.
Roach, a political neophyte who was attacked during the campaign as a "mystery man," stayed out of sight Wednesday, shunning reporters he last spoke to halfway through the count Tuesday night.
Local and national GOP leaders rallied behind Bilbray. Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said the former San Diego-area congressman had the party's full support.
Roach, however, was unwilling to concede, and his campaign staff floated the possibility of a re-count.
"We are waiting for those final 10,000 votes to be counted," said Roach spokesman Stan Devereux. "Then we'll see if a recount is necessary."
Devereux didn't rule out the possibility that Roach might attempt a write-in campaign in the June runoff if he finishes behind Bilbray.
Election-weary San Diegans, who make up nearly half of the district, have already seen their share of disputed elections and political corruption.
Maverick City Councilwoman Donna Frye's write-in bid for mayor in 2004 outpolled incumbent Dick Murphy, but a judge gave Murphy the victory when he tossed out more than 5,500 ballots on which voters wrote Frye's name but failed to darken the adjoining bubble. Murphy then resigned seven months into his second term amid a widening federal investigation into the city's deficit-ridden pension fund.
Busby, a local school board member who lost to Cunningham in 2004, touted herself as the candidate of change and said she was prepared to face whichever Republican emerged as the eventual victor.
"Either one of them will represent more of the same of the leadership we've seen in Congress," she said.