Since the 50th District has a big election coming up in June, voters might want to ask Republican candidate and lobbyist, Brian Bilbray questions about his various issues and occasional allegations that come up during the course of the campaign.

Here is the direct email link to Bilbray’s campaign.

If you don’t get a response from Mr. Bilbray, you might want to ask him the question via the newspaper. Here are the letters to the editor addresses for the North County Times and the Union Tribune.

Here are a couple of questions you might want to ask Brian Bilbray:

1. As a lobbyist for anti-immigrant groups did you have the opportunity to work closely with the Border Guardians and the National Socialist Movement? As these are two actives anti-immigration groups, it would be interesting to know your relationship to them?

2. Brian, when you were a member of congress, you took a Jack Abramoff sponsored trip to the Marianas  Island. When you came back you worked hard in congress to insure that workers in this U.S. Trust Territory were not covered by even the most basic U.S. labor laws. What happened on that trip to convince you to keep the garment workers in the Marianas in a state of virtual slavery?

Drop the Bilbray campaign a note or ask them through the newspaper. You deserve to know what makes Brian Bilbray tick.

Here is the link to Francine Busby’s campaign blog. The Busby campaign responds to the lies, distortions and deceptions to which the National Republican Congressional Committee and Brian Bilbray have resorted in the 50th CD campaign.

The NRCC and lobbyist Brian Bilbray have sunk to a new low in their latest ad. In addition to falsely attacking Francine on her record on education, they accuse her of sympathizing with a teacher accused of possessing child pornography. This claim is despicable and couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Claim 1: Francine sympathized with a teacher accused of possessing child pornography.

The Truth: Francine and the Cardiff School Board took immediate action and had the teacher removed from the classroom. He never taught again – end of story.

Claim 2: Under Francine’s supervision, the school district deficit increased.

The Truth: California law requires that School Districts adopt a balanced budget. They are also required to maintain a reserve equivalent to 3% of total expenditures. In the time Francine has been on the School Board, Cardiff Schools have never allowed their reserve to dip below 5% – 2% more than is actually required.

Claim 3: Busby voted to layoff teachers.

The Truth: Initial layoff notices are required in March, with final notices in May. Districts must project enrollments and determine staffing needs long before they know their final revenues for the current year. As a result, school districts are required to give notices as a precautionary measure even though layoffs may never take place.

Three claims – Three shameless lies. Expect more of the same in the next 6 weeks from these corrupt Washington insiders who want more of the same in Washington for years to come.

For most Republicans wining is all that counts.  How you do it and what you become in the process doesn’t matter to them.

Over at Dump Doolittle, they pick up on a new editorial from within Doolittle’s 4th CD that calls on Doolittle to speak out against the allegations that keep swirling around him. Unlike last week’s Washington Post editorial, which questioned Doolittle’s fund raising arrangement with his wife, the Roseville Press Tribune pleads with Doolittle to put the issues on the table and tell the truth.

At the heart of the Press Tribune’s plea to Doolittle is his secret hiring of a high priced Washington lawyer, David Barger, to advise him as to how to deal with questions regarding Doolittle’s close association with convicted felon Jack Abramoff.

While it’s not uncommon for someone involved in such rumors and innuendo to seek help in dealing with controversy, Doolittle’s choice of help can be viewed as intriguing if nothing else.

Barger is the former president of the Virginia Bar Association’s criminal law section and a former assistant U.S. attorney who later was an associate of special prosecutor Kenneth Starr in the Whitewater investigation during the Clinton administration.

The Press Tribune suggests that instead of hiring a lawyer, if Doolittle is as innocent as he maintains, there is an alternate course.

The goal of the media is to publish the news and the truth. And what better place to get the truth than straight from the horse’s mouth? If there’s nothing to hide, then why all the secrecy? Why not publicly release all information proving his innocence? Why not publicly announce the January hiring of Barger at the time?

There may be nothing worse in politics than guilt by association. It’s not pretty, and it’s not always fair, but unless there is irrefutable proof to the contrary, the rumors will continue to swirl not only in Washington,D.C., but in Northern California among Doolittle’s supporters and detractors.

Doolittle has publicly pledged to “fight to ensure that the truth in these matters prevails.” There’s an old cliché that an innocent man will shout his innocence from the rooftops. What better way to do that than to talk, openly and honestly? Which brings to mind another cliché:

“The truth shall set you free.”

The problem that John Doolittle faces may be a bit more complex. For Doolittle, telling the truth may in the words of the 5th Amendment, force Doolittle “to be a  witness against himself.”

In Doolittle’s case, the truth just might put him in jail.