Who knows?  Bilbray says he’s the “presumptive” candidate. 

Neither of the two leading candidates claimed outright victory after Tuesday’s special election to finish the final eight months of Cunningham’s term. They were separated by less than 900 votes.

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, had 18,486 votes or 14 percent.

You also have to love that Roach’s money could only buy one vote for each $10.  $10/vote.  Wow, those are some expensive votes.  So, while neither Republican can decide who is the winner, they can spend lots of money to decide nothing.

But Roach hasn’t ruled anything out.  Anything.

“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.

Well, I must admit that I thought Busby vs. Bilbray was my dream scenario for the runoff (if there had to be one.)  But I take that back.  My dream scenario is now Roach running a well-financed write-in campaign and handing the election to Busby.  Hey Eric, you want to spend another $10/vote?

Well, not opposition, but not endorsing, and definitely not “fantastic” (thanks Julia).

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign said Wednesday he would not endorse a universal preschool initiative that filmmaker Rob Reiner has championed, citing the governor’s long-standing opposition to tax increases.

“Put simply, the governor does not support tax increases and is opposed to Proposition 82 because it will raise taxes,” Katie Levinson, communications director for the Schwarzenegger reelection campaign, said in a statement.(LA Times 4/13/06)

I can understand Schwarzenegger’s hesitancy over the tax increase; he is a Norquist-Republican after all (now, there’s a nice meme).  But, from what I understood, he had agreed to stay out of this race entirely if he wasn’t going to endorse it (more as a personal favor to Rob Reiner than anything else).  Well, I still haven’t heard anything directly from the Governor’s mouth, but I’m not expecting to.  He tends not to say much of consequence when can. 

If you want to endorse it, do that.  If you don’t, then just say that you oppose it.  Arnold needs to learn that Sacramento is not Hollywood.  You can’t just smile and say nothing.  He needs to be leader.  Or more accurately, we need a NEW governor who is going to be a leader. 

OK, here’s the California Blog Roundup for today. Teasers: 5 House Districts to watch, a smidge more on CA-50, more fun with Brian Bilbray, wobbly Governor (and not the good kind of Wobbly), some endorsements from a couple groups, news of the funny and weird.

• AnthonySF at RemoveRepublicans puts together his top 5 hit list for House Districts in California. Now if he’d just add an RSS feed so it would be easier to integrate his work into our roundup reading.
• AnthonyLA at DailyKos has his own spin on what happened on Tuesday, as does our own CarlsbadDem. Also, Words Have Power, this brief pictorial history of Brian Bilbray.
• Alliance for a Better California points out the weakness and general wobbliness of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan for some kind of emission plan. In other news, neither Frank Russo nor Bill Bradley are impressed, though one criticizes on principle, one on tactics.
• Pombowatch catches Richard Pombo in what looks like a flat-out lie, or maybe if one were excessively generous, a flip-flop. It’s shocking, I know.
• We’ve got a couple sets of endorsements for June 6:
• California State Employee’s Association
• San Francisco Young Democrats (including some local candidates and measures)

• ABC takes Dan Walters to task for his smears of the CTA (apparently including making up his own facts.
• D-Day has news of the weird, and California Observer has what may be the funniest story about a Republican I’ve heard in a while.
• Oh, and Westly & Angelides for Prop 82, Schwarzenegger sells out Reiner by coming out against.