President Bush is plumbing new lows in California according to the most recent Field Poll.

The appraisal of the job President Bush is doing has reached a new low among California voters and is among the lowest of any president in modern history, according to a new Field Poll.

Only 32 percent of the registered California voters questioned by the nonpartisan public opinion survey said they approved of the job Bush is doing, compared to 62 percent who did not.

Bush’s popularity, or lack of same, has fallen to a point where he is in danger of matching or falling below Richard Nixon’s bellweather low rating of 24%. Bush has already fallen below his father’s lowest California rating (37%) and, with this recent poll, managed to squeeze below Jimmy Carter (33%).

“They were just about to be voted out of office, or in the case of Richard Nixon, he was about to resign,” Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said. “Bush still has more than two years to go, so I think we’re in somewhat uncharted territory.”

“Uncharted territory!”

Conservative Republicans aren’t happy about Brian Bilbray’s election to the post of party standard bearer in the 50th Congressional District. As we noted yesterday, the convoluted process of selecting convicted Republican felon Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s replacement leaves the door open for a serious challenge from the Republican right directed at Bilbray.

Over at the conservative, Flashreport, Jon Fleischman (former Executive Director of the California Republican Party) looks at June’s multi-purpose election process and suggests that before leaving the field to Bilbray, Republicans need to do some soul searching. In essence, if conservative Republicans aren’t willing to face the prospect of seeing Brian Bilbray in congress for “the next two decades,” the June primary becomes critical.

…Republican voters will also have their first real opportunity, in a contest where ONLY REPUBLICANS will vote, to choose their nominee for the November show down with Busby.

Of course, if the June Republican primary ballot looks like Tuesday’s special election ballot, will the result be any different? As long as three conservatives (Roach, Kaloogian, Morrow) run against Bilbray, Bilbray wins. In addition, Bilbray will have the positive carry-over effect that comes from voters selecting him in his head-to-head race with Busby and then turning the page to the Republican primary list and seeing his name again. Considering Bilbray’s advantages, for a conservative Republican to win the primary, that person will have to convince one or both of his conservative soul mates to abandon the quest.

For Fleischman, that person is Eric Roach.

I’m not in a position to tell readers whether Eric Roach will gear up a campaign for Congress in a closed June primary. But I will tell you this — if he can unify conservatives around the idea that a hard-charger who will make a difference within the governing GOP majority in Washington, who will join the Republican Study Committee (the conservative caucus in the House) and fight for real change should represent the 50th long-term — then he should seriously think about it.

Will their conservative ideology drive 50th District Republicans to follow such a dangerous and divisive path?

The Busby express rolls on to June.  Bibray and Roach, too close to call.

Full Results are in the extended.

FRANCINE BUSBY  

55284

43.97%

BRIAN P. BILBRAY  

19065

15.16%

ERIC ROACH  

18143

14.43%

HOWARD KALOOGIAN  

9291

7.39%

BILL MORROW  

6785

5.40%

ALAN UKE  

5020

3.99%

RICHARD EARNEST  

2713

2.16%

BILL HAUF  

2010

1.60%

SCOTT TURNER  

1794

1.43%

CHRIS YOUNG  

1676

1.33%

WILLIAM GRIFFITH  

1026

0.82%

VICTOR E. RAMIREZ  

833

0.66%

PAUL KING  

766

0.61%

JEFF NEWSOME  

544

0.43%

SCOTT ORREN  

310

0.25%

DELECIA HOLT  

240

0.19%

BILL BOYER  

185

0.15%

MILTON GALE  

53

0.04%

San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn may find his re-election chances further diminished by yesterday’s disclosure that he spent time with convicted Republican felon Randy “Duke” Cunningham on his yacht the Duke-Stir.

Horn’s visit with Cunningham was part of a ten day lobbying trip that Horn and his chief of staff, Joan Wonsley, took in August of 2003.  A lobbying trip that took them to Washington when Congress was in recess and most legislators were out of town.

Republican Horn, who was first elected to the County Board of Supervisors in 1995, faces a tough primary fight against fellow Republican, Bruce Thompson.

Having a beer with Cunningham on the Duke-Stir wouldn’t have been such a big issue was it not for other allegations that have been swirling around Horn in recent weeks.  Allegations of both financial and personal misconduct that directly involve Horn and Wonsley.

In mid-March, during a public question and answer session of a county supervisor’s meeting, Horn was asked to explain the fact that Wonsley lives in a million dollar home owned by Horn. Included in that question was an allegation that Horn lives or has lived at various times with Wonsley in the home.

Horn and the house deal first came under fire three weeks ago, when retired Salk Institute biology professor Ian Trowbridge asked Horn at a board meeting why Wonsley was living in his million-dollar home, and where Horn himself lived.

Horn responded that Wonsley and he had entered a “lease-option” agreement on the six-bedroom, 5 1/2 bath Carlsbad home. Horn has since clarified that the deal was an “equity-share” agreement that protects him from paying taxes on the $349,000 until the house is sold again, and makes Wonsley co-owner.

Horn also told Trowbridge that he lived at his Valley Center ranch with his wife, Kathleen.

However, it later came to light that in addition to Horn’s failure to report the $349,000 on his financial disclosure forms, Wonsley had also given false addresses on campaign finance forms —- hiding the fact that she lived in the Carlsbad home.

The financial aspects of the Horn/Wonsley arrangement forced Horn to revise his 2004 and 2005 financial disclosure forms.  The personal aspects of the arrangement forced Horn to defend his relationship with Wonsley and opened up further questions as to why Wonsley was so willing to put $349,000 of her own money into a home owned by Horn.

Critics immediately suggested that the pair purposely tried to hide the deal, possibly to conceal their relationship, or to hide the $349,000 that Wonsley gave Horn to protect it from a civil lawsuit filed against Wonsley’s daughter, Brooke.

Brooke Wonsley was arrested in 2003 on charges she stabbed her boyfriend in an argument at Joan Wonsley’s condominium. The charge was initially a felony, but was reduced to a misdemeanor. The ex-boyfriend filed a civil suit against Brooke Wonsley in 2005.

Disclosure of the Horn/Wonsley financial arrangements was bad enough for Horn.  The revelations of the complex nature of their personal relationship, which had been a subject of speculation in the county for a long time, gives Horn’s critics more ammunition.

This most recent disclosure that Horn and Wonsley took an extended lobbying trip together that included time on the Duke-Stir with Cunningham just adds more fuel to the fire and keeps the story alive.

(Meant to front page this. Busby has a chance to win this thing on Tuesday. She needs everyone’s help. – promoted by Words Have Power)

The latest Datamar poll of the 50th Congressional District race was released today. Democrat Francine Busby remains the most popular candidate with 39% of likely voters saying that they will vote for her. 39% is far from the 50% + 1 that is required to win the seat outright, but Busby may be in striking distance of that number.

The Datamar poll is a fully automated telephone poll that targets the households of prior voters. It is easy to hang up on the poll and, believe it or not, Datamar called my house twice during the week, both times at the dinner hour, and polled whoever answered the phone. Not the best practice. The other problem with the Datamar approach is that it doesn’t address absentee and early voters. I suspect that members of both of these groups would simply hang up on Datamar’s electronic voice and get on with their lives.

Anyway, with that said, there is a serious race among the Republican to get the opportunity to face Busby in June, assuming that lightning doesn’t strike her campaign. On the Republican side, carpetbagger millionaire Eric Roach (16.5%) has a slender 1.1% margin over carpetbagger lobbyist Brian Bilbray (15.4%). Howard “Wrong Way” Kaloogian has slipped back from the lead group with 9.5% of the potential vote. Kaloogian’s woes with photos and endorsements certainly appear to have trimmed his numbers.

Two other Republican contenders, millionaire Alan Uke (4.3%) and state senator Bill Morrow (6.8%) have picked up some support, but still remain well behind the Republican leaders Roach and Bilbray.

Datamar’s results are considerable less favorable for Busby than last week’s SurveyUSA poll that pulsed her support at 45%. As I noted above, the Datamar approach doesn’t leave me with a high level of confidence. The fact, that my home was polled twice doesn’t give me a warm feeling regarding the level of control Datamar has in place to avoid double counting.

Rumor has it that the number of absentee ballots is far larger than expected and that those ballots appear to be heavily skewed towards Busby. If that is true, then a strong GOTV effort over the next three days might push her over the top and result in an outright win.

The gloves are off as Republican candidates in the race for convicted Republican felon Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s seat in congress attempt to climb over each other in their race to finish second to Democrat Francine Busby.

Polls suggest that the Republican side of the race is to close to call. The Three Stooges: Howard Kaloogian, Vincent Eric Roach and Brian Bilbray are locked in mortal combat. Alan Uke, another millionaire Republican, has started to make inroads into the front runner’s numbers.

Thanks to his $2.4 million in self-funding, Roach has purchased a position as the Republican front runner. So, it comes as no surprise that Bilbray and Uke are taking aim at Roach with a late campaign advertising blitz.

Bilbray’s campaign has a new mailer out that expands on the plot line raised earlier in the week that Roach has seldom bothered to vote or even register. Roach’s voting failures are spelled out in terms of issues near and dear to the hearts of California Republicans (Defense of Marriage – Prop 22, English in Schools – Prop 227, Death Penalty – Prop 18). More curious is Bilbray’s charge that Roach is a carpetbagger, who mysteriously appeared in San Diego from, the Devil’s playground, San Francisco. That’s quite an accusation coming from a guy who never lived in the district, whose California voting residence is his mother’s house and whose family residence is in Virginia.

Uke doubles up on Roach, attacking him in a commercial for off-shoring American jobs and shipping “billions of dollars to foreigners.”

Roach’s millions aren’t going to protect him from this last minute blitz of negative campaigning. He has spent his way to the top of the heap, but it is going hard to sustain that position as his opponents pound away. The going only gets tougher for Roach on Tuesday as he will be forced to run a get out the vote effort with hired “volunteers.”

Double hat tip to San Diego Politics – Home of the Dirt.

You can read the details here, but here’s the shorter version: Huge cash contributions from convicted felon Randy “Duke” Cunningham, indicted felon Tom Delay, convicted felon Mitchell Wade and soon to be indicted Brent Wilkes are going to be used by the Republican Party of Corruption to fund attack ads against Francine Busby.

The Republican Party of Tom Delay and Duke Cunningham has proven that it will only give up power in only one of two ways: indictment or defeat at the polls.

Sunday, 4/2, 7pm – 9pm
Fundraiser Dance for Francine Busby. Featuring Jim Woodard of the Swinging Kings and Sue Palmer @ the Encinitas Community Center, 1140  Oakcrest Park Dr. Encinitas – $10 admission. Info/RSVP:  Melodie @ (760)753-6300 or [email protected] 

Monday, 4/3, 1pm – 2pm
Francine Busby will be speaking to the residents of Atria- Encinitas. Info: Seena @ (760)479-0114

Thursday, 4/6, 7pm – 9pm
Francine Busby will be attending a 50th District Candidates Forum sponsored by the Rancho Bernardo Community Council and Rancho Penasquitos Town Council, @ DoubleTree Golf Resort – Heritage Ballroom 

Friday, 4/7, 6pm – 8pm
Please join us for the last big fundraiser before the special election on April 11th! Hosted by Dick and Sally Phelps in their Rancho Santa Fe home. $100 suggested minimum donation. Info/RSVP: Melodie @ (760)753-6300 or [email protected]

San Diego Union Tribune columnist, Logan Jenkins, reports on another Kaloogian geography error in his April 1st (hint) column.

…There’s another error on Kaloogian’s Web site.   

In a snapshot in his photo gallery, Kaloogian is supposedly standing near Mount Ararat in “Aremenia.” (Most of us know it as as Armenia.)

Thanks to a biblical blogger with an interest in geology, I have learned that the mountain in the photograph is not Mount Ararat, the post-flood landing platform for Noah’s Ark.

No, a close analysis of the outcropping’s outline proves that Kaloogian is actually posing in the San Pasqual Valley with a snow-capped Mount Palomar in the background. When told of the error, Kaloogian said, “I can’t believe it. Somehow photos from my tour of the Wild Animal Park got switched with those taken on the Iraq trip.”

Looks like the folks at TPM Muckraker forgot what day it was.

More April 1st “news” about the 50th Congressional District Special Election from Jenkins:

On former Republican front runner, congressman turned lobbyist, Brian Bilbray –

Hit pieces targeting former Congressman Brian Bilbray have gone way over the top. The most recent feature a computer-rigged fake photograph of Bilbray riding a wave tandem with corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The caption says: “Bilbray and buddy Washington lobbyist carve wave in the Mariana Islands on surf junket. Roasted pig served at luau.”

In another mailer, Bilbray is shown working in what appears to be a meth lab in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion with his old associate, Mike Ellis, former Metabolife executive. Caption: “Bilbray earns lavish campaign contributions he received from death-dealing herbal appetite suppressant.”

On highly qualified and completely overlooked State Senator Bill Morrow –

After proposing chemical castration after the first conviction for child molestation, state Sen. Morrow did not get the campaign lift he’d hoped for. Polls show him to be lagging in fourth or fifth place.

In a desperate bid for elevation, Morrow is mulling a last-minute offensive: Advocate the physical castration of second-time offenders. The snappy slogan: “The Kindest Cut for Kids.”

Jenkins story lines prove what Howard Kaloogian’s campaign demonstrated:  the best stories are the ones that you make up.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune Representative Duncan Hunter (CA-52) has agreed to have his House Armed Services Committee review its records for 2004 and 2005 to determine the extent to which convicted felon and former 50th District congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham might have influenced spending toward companies that happened to be paying him off with bribes.

Hunter’s was pushed to order the review by Democrat Vic Snyder (AR-2), but Hunter refused to allow the staff review to extend to activities prior to 2004 AND Hunter refused to allow any review of other members of the committee who might have joined Cunningham in his funding requests.

Hunter’s restrictions will certainly protect one member of the committee, Duncan Hunter himself.

Prior to 2004, Hunter partnered with Cunningham to push through several projects that the Department of Defense had not asked for and in which they had little interest.

Although Hunter has not been cited in any of the criminal probes of Cunningham, the two San Diego County lawmakers cooperated closely on a number of projects that helped local defense firms. Hunter reportedly helped to pressure defense officials to provide funds to projects that Cunningham had favored. The two also cooperated to get funding for an experimental ship, called the Seafighter, and for a guided missile, called the affordable weapon system, both produced by San Diego-based Titan Corp.

Who would expect Hunter to allow an investigation of his support of Cunningham’s criminal activities. Well, maybe the American people. The ones who paid the bills.