Tag Archives: Brian Bilbray

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CA-50: Bilbray shifts right, McCain shifts far, far away

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Apparently John McCain doesn’t want to hang with Brian Bilbray anymore.  He cancelled an appearance with the CA-50 candidate:

Arizona Sen. John McCain on Tuesday canceled an appearance for a Republican congressional candidate who has attacked his opponent for supporting McCain’s immigration bill.

McCain, R-Ariz., was scheduled to speak Wednesday at a breakfast fundraiser for Brian Bilbray, who is locked in a close runoff race with Democrat Francine Busby for the San Diego-area seat left vacant by disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham. The event was expected to raise at least $65,000.(AP 5/30/06)

Oh, so you mean I shouldn’t attack my opponent for supporting a bill sponsored by somebody who was coming to help me fundraise?  Oh, I didn’t know that.  I’ll get on that next time.  But at least Sen. McCain is still forking over some cash ($5K from his PAC).

The DCCC’s stakeholder has a nice little recap of the story with press releases from Busby and the DCCC.  You know one thing that I can say about Busby’s campaign- they are very good about staying on the lobbyist message.  I swear everytime they use the word “Bilbray” it is proceeded with “lobbyist”.  Now, that’s discipline.

Oh and by the way, who were some of Bilbray’s clients you might ask?  Oh well, some very friendly anti-immigration such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).  Yeah, good ol’ FAIR.  What a great bunch of nativists.  They don’t even attempt to hide it on their website.  They have flash stastics to scare the natives.  It’s all quite fun.

So go ahead Sen McCain.  Give Bilbray your five grand.  But is Brian Bilbray really who you want to work with?  I think we all know who the reasonable candidate in this race is.  Let’s help Francine out: ActBlue … her site.

San Diego

Wilkes in the news

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Brent Wilkes, the Duke Cunningham bribing, prostitute poker providing defense contractor, is all over the news lately.  He appears in the latest issue of Newsweek.  Good job Brent!

There is nothing unusual or illegal about a defense contractor with an open checkbook for campaign fund-raisers and seats to fill on a corporate jet. But federal prosecutors want to find out more about how Wilkes tapped into what may be one of Washington’s sweetest post-9/11 honey pots—secret defense and intelligence contracts that are often awarded without competitive bids or oversight but with plenty of congressional meddling. Wilkes appears to be at the center of a Washington scandal that has the potential to shake Capitol Hill and the Pentagon.
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According to published reports and congressional and law-enforcement sources who did not want to be identified discussing a sensitive investigation, the Feds are also reviewing Wilkes’s ties to other powerful House leaders. Former GOP majority leader Tom DeLay, Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter and Appropriations Committee chairman Jerry Lewis all reportedly had dealings with Wilkes. None has been accused of any wrongdoing; a spokesman for Lewis said the congressman had not seen Wilkes for 10 years. Hunter’s spokesman said his boss urged the Pentagon to ignore congressional pressure on contracting, and DeLay’s lawyer had no immediate comment. (Newsweek 6/5/06)

And nobody wants to play with poor Brent Wilkes anymore.  Nobody goes to his poker prostitute parties, nobody gets him $10million contracts.  And nobody even wants to admit knowing the poor guy:

His life is getting lonelier. He has been dropped by charities; his office building is for sale; his federal contracts are drying up. Once a ubiquitous figure in San Diego politics, Wilkes might as well have ceased to exist. Former San Diego congressman Brian Bilbray, a Republican who was in the House until 2001 before retiring to become a lobbyist, is running for Duke Cunningham’s vacated seat. Bilbray told NEWSWEEK, “I may have met Brent once or twice, but I really do not remember.” Bilbray did discover that Wilkes had donated $7,000 to his campaigns, but the candidate has given the money to charity. “I wouldn’t know Wilkes if I saw him in the street,” said Bilbray.

Even his fellow lobbyists, like Brian Bilbray, are throwing the guy under the bus.  What indignation the man has suffered.  All this for trying to pursue the American dream.  And what’s the problem anyway?  Everybody loves poker these days.  And prostitution is the oldest profession.  It’s got a long, cherished history.  Poor, poor Brent.  I think it’s jealousy.

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CA-50: Unhappy times in NRCC

From U.S. News (via [RandyMI at dKos ]http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/5/29/162037/594]):

Staffers from the National Republican Congressional Committee are quietly telling GOP House members to prepare for a possible loss in the June 6 special election to fill the seat of Randy “Duke” Cunningham, now in prison for taking bribes. The Southern California district is heavily Republican, but some GOP insiders believe that Democrat Francine Busby will defeat former GOP Rep. Brian Bilbray and go on to win a full term in November. More alarming some worry that a Bilbray defeat could signal the GOP’s loss of control of the House. The NRCC has already pumped $3.1 million into the race. “It is becoming more and more likely,” says one GOP strategist, “that Bilbray will squeak out a victory.” But another longtime Republican operative isn’t so sure. “This is a district we should never lose,” he says. “It’s the stink of Cunningham, and the Bush problem.”(Usnews.com 6/5/2006 (sic))

As we’ve talked about here recently, Francine Busby has a slight cash lead.  However the NRCC is desparate to keep this seat in GOP hands.  Lobbyist Brian Bilbray is the benificiary of that program.  We need to make sure that Francine can respond to the NRCC attack ads and dishonesty that they are spewing.

This race is not only winnable, it’s a race that, at this point, is our ours to lose.  Complaceny is now our biggest enemy.  The NRCC will go to great lengths to ensure that the lobbyist wins this seat (and furthering the K Street Project).  Check out our ActBlue page to donate to Francine’s campaign.

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Photos from Cheney San Diego visit

A dark cloud descended on San Diego today. And yes, it is true, the dark cloud always travels with an ambulance.
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Fresh from fundraising for Doolittle (CA-04) and Pombo (CA-11), two of the worst and most corrupt representatives in congress, Dick Cheney flew down to San Diego to fundraise for former congressman-now-lobbyist Brian Bilbray. He chose the Harbor Island Sheraton, which is about 100ft from the airport (google satellite map), for maximum lack of exposure to the unwashed masses. Because the unwashed masses (all but the backwash 18% of them) have a message to send him that he doesn’t want to hear. We hate your war, we hate your incompetence and we hate your corruption. We hate what you’ve done to this country. We hate what you’ve done to this world. And by the way, if Brian Bilbray is a friend of Dick Cheney, Brian Bilbray is no friend of the citizens of CA-50. Ray Nanninga of the Coast News summed it up perfectly:

Dick Cheney is a lying piece of corporatist flesh.

Dick Cheney is all about oil and war, and wars for oil. Cheney wants to expand oil drilling along the California coast. …Dick Cheney represents the politics of oil extraction, partisan posturing and poisonous patriotism. Dick Cheney does not represent the best interests of California’s 50th District.

Dick Cheney represents Halliburton …

Dick Cheney wants you to vote for Brian Bilbray.

Cost of a photo w/Cheney at the luncheon fundraiser: $2100

Bilbray showing his true (anti-moderate) colors: priceless

Here are the pics (click to enlarge):

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Hiding behind “The War is a Lie” is a great one “[STOP sign] the Lying / Spying / Dying”–that pretty much sums up this administration.
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The “Illegal?” sign was quite a message. She held the sign over her tiny baby (in a snugli, you can just see his head). Bilbray has been one of the loudest voices in favor of elimintaing citizenship for babies born in the United States, if their parents are not here legally. Would just minutes-old infants be felons as well, under the new House bill? Sad.
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That’s me and the mini-mes. The text on their shirt are the names of Iraqi children killed in airstrikes, that are roughly the same age and gender. I don’t blame the military–maybe I’m gulible but I do think they’ve been doing their darndest to prevent civilian casualties. No, the fault is with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfled, Wolfowitz, et al. There is no such thing as a war without civilian casualties. When you CHOOSE to go to war, you choose to kill children that somebody loves just as much as I love these cuties. Someone at the protest commented on their cuteness, saying “you have an embarrassment of riches.” It is true. But there are mothers in Iraq, and mothers here in the US, who are poor beyond words at the loss of their richest blessings.
 

Thanks to Iraq Body Count and their database of recorded civillian casualties in Iraq for the information.

Here is one of the T-shirt images:

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The birth year is approximate based on the age given (2 yr old).

(cross-posted at dailykos)

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“Where Does Brian Bilbray Really Live?”

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It’s one thing for Democrats to call Brian Bilbray, Republican lobbyist and 50th CD congressional candidate, a carpetbagger. Considering that Bilbray has never lived in the 50th District and considering that for the last 5 years his residence has been in Virginia, the Democrat’s claim that Bilbray was an carpetbagging opportunist may have been valid, but until now it didn’t resonate.

Things seem to have changed. Yesterday, Democrats claimed that Bilbray has made fraudulent claims regarding his place of residence and that he may have actually claimed three legal residences for different legal purposes. The Union Tribune soft sells the story today, keeping the political aspect up front, but local ABC affiliate, KGTV, has taken a far more aggressive stance and is actually investigating the story.

In a story first run last night and repeated today, KGTV asks, “Where Does Brian Bilbray Really Live?“

In fact, there are serious questions about where Bilbray really lives. Virginia property records show Bilbray claims a home in Alexandria, Va., as his primary residence, for tax purposes.

The same is true for a home in Imperial Beach. Bilbray and his wife, Karen, also claim the Imperial Beach home as their primary residence. […]

“I live in Carlsbad, taking care of my mother,” Bilbray said.

He said he has lived in the Carlsbad house since March 2005.

It is the address he used in his declaration of candidacy for the North County congressional seat.

Democrats said Bilbray does not live at that address.[…]

Neighbors told 10News they rarely ever see Bilbray at the house, which is his mother’s home.

“He comes here occasionally to see his mother like boys will do, but he doesn’t live here,” said neighbor Frank Knudsen.

“If he does live here, he must leave late at night and come back early in the morning,” said neighbor Bill Rider.

Another man, who lives right next door, said he wondered when people would catch on that Bilbray does not live here.


It’s not going to help the floundering Bilbray campaign to have television news following him around to see where he sleeps at night.

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CA-50 All Tied Up!

A SurveyUSA poll released today finds the race for the CA-50 congressional seat tied, with Democrat Francine Busby and Republican Brian Bilbray each the preference of 45% of likely voters.

The poll represents 442 likely voters sampled May 7-9. By party affiliation 50% of the respondents considered themselves Republican, 32% Democrats and 18% independents. Bilbray is the preference of 82% of the self-described Republicans, while Busby is the preference of 95% of Democrats and 54% of independents.

More details below.

One point of interest, 54% of the Republicans surveyed did not vote in the April 11 special election, where just 35% of the Democrats claimed to have not participated. Bilbray’s number therefore reflect the contribution of self-described likely voters, who did not bother to fill out an absentee ballot or drop by a polling station to choose their party’s candidate for the run-off. What are to odds that this group will now turn out in mass to vote for Bilbray?

This poll was taken before Eric Roach “stood down” in his primary challenge of Bilbray and before Bill Hauf alerted the media that he was seriously considering an “aggressive” challenge of Bilbray in the primary.

All in all, this poll is good news for Busby. She has moved from being slightly behind Bilbray right after the special election (although within that poll’s margin of error) to a dead even tie in a heavily Republican district.

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CA-50 Republican Poll Shows Busby With Decisive Lead

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This looks like great news, so why am I skeptical? Over at Flash Report, the drumbeat for right wing Republican darling, Eric Roach, to run against Republican lobbyist Brian Bilbray has become frantic. Roach, for his part, remains silent. In fact, Roach has missed two deadlines established by his own spokesman for an announcement of his intentions. Last week, we were told Roach would have an announcement by week’s end. This week, the same line. No announcement.

Now to this latest poll. The numbers for Busby are outstanding. In a poll of 450 potential voters, skewed heavily with Republicans, Busby outperforms Bilbray 43% to 37%. This seems pretty unusual, so let’s look at the poll a little more closely.

First, the poll was commissioned by conservative Republican and Eric Roach supporter, Bill Hauf. Hauf ostensible wanted to find out both Bilbray’s position in his race against Busby, but also the mood of the conservative electorate. The poll appears to have been designed to insure that Bilbray’s liberal tendencies would be exposed.

Second, the poll used a classic “push poll” methodology. The money question of voter preference is preceded by questions designed to predispose the respondent to make a specific choice. For example, prior to asking if a voter prefers Busby or Bilbray, there might be a couple of questions about Bilbray the lobbyist. Or, depending on the poll, a question about Bilbray eating the flesh of young children.

Third, the poll was designed to scare Republicans. Bilbray (the eater of living children) performed far worse against Busby than Roach, the white knight of the Republican right.

However, this poll is good news for Busby. The margin of error is too great to be just the product of the “push poll” bias. And, it shows that Republican support of Bilbray is incredibly weak.

The continuing drumbeat of bad news regarding the Bush Administration and the support of Republican leaders like Cheney and Hastert are huge negative for Bilbray. In fact, the mainstream party support for Bilbray is playing right into both Busby and Roach’s hands.

The result here is great for Busby, a major negative for Bilbray and a big inducement to Roach to take on Bilbray (for his own good).

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CA-50 Ask Brian Bilbray – May 2 Edition

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It is interesting how many members of congress and CIA employees are having a hard time remembering the details of those cigar and booze filled nights over at Brent Wilkes’ “hospitality suite.” Via TPM Muckracker:

Porter Goss never participated.

Dusty Foggo played poker, but never saw any hookers.

Jerry Lewis (CA-41) never hung with Wilkes outside of California.

Duncan Hunter (CA-51) doesn’t drink, smoke or hang out with riff-raff.

John Doolittle (CA-4) doesn’t speak to the press.

What about one of Wilkes other pals in congress, Brian Bilbray? Bilbray received some big money from Wilkes and was active both in congress and as a lobbyist while Wilkes was running his “hospitality” operation for lonely members of congress.

Why isn’t someone from the Pulitzer Prize winning San Diego Union Tribune asking Bilbray about his association with Wilkes?

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CA-50 Will Roach Run?

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50th District Republican Eric Roach has returned from his visit with the lords of the right in Washington and now California conservatives eagerly await his decision. Will he run against Brian Bilbray in the 50th District Republican primary? Certainly, it’s not just conservatives who are hanging on Roach’s impending announcement. Roach’s entry into the primary will force Brian Bilbray to fight a two front war – one against Democrat Francine Busby in the run-off election to fill out the remainder of convicted Republican felon Randy “Duke” Cunningham and the other to fend off Roach in the Republican primary. Both battles to be fought simultaneously and decided on June 6.

Conservative blogger, Jon Fleischman was part of Roach’s entourage on his trip to DC. Roach, Fleischman and the geography challenged Howard Kaloogian visited the various gurus of the right, with Fleischman breathlessly reporting on each new encounter with the great oracles of conservatism – Grover Norquist, Paul Weyrich, and a host of other right wing members of the Republican congress of corruption.  No mention of any visits to Brent Wilkes’ “hospitality” suite.

Why does Roach need Grove Norquist’s permission to run?  Answer after the jump.

More to the point, this trip was designed to grease the skids for what in the end will be a Republican vs Republican cage match. If Roach’s primary candidacy results in a Busby victory in June, it will be considered as collateral damage by the conservatives. Their target is a conservative victory in November. If Roach beats Bilbray in the primary, then whether Bilbray wins or loses the run-off with Busby, his only alternative in November is to run a write-in campaign, which almost guarantees the seat to Busby. At that point, Bilbray will be under incredible pressure from the Republican Party to go back to his home in Virginia and resume his career as a lobbyist.

This is a high stakes game for Roach and the conservatives. If Roach wins the primary and then defeats Busby in November, it is validation for the movement conservatives. If Roach loses to Bilbray in the primary or if a three way race in November results in a Busby victory, the movement conservatives will be repudiated in a district they consider as safe as any in the country, a strong signal that the far right wing driven vision of the conservative movement may well be on the decline.

Upon their return, Fleischman strongly urged Roach to run.

…in terms of sending someone to Washington long-term in a conservative district (70% of the votes for GOP candidates in the special went to very conservative candidates in a 14-way donnybrook), we need Roach to run. Besides, I honestly believe that (now that I know how not-conservative Bilbray was in DC), Republicans will have a hard-time motivating to get to the polls without Roach on the ballot. We’ll see what Eric Roach decides — but I hope that he decides to run – both for the good of the party, and for the good of the conservative cause, which is already imperiled by too many Bilbray-clones in the House.

He’s right, the conservative cause needs Eric Roach to run.  What the movement conservatives can’t afford is for Roach to fail.

Blog Roundup

California Blog Roundup, 4/26/06

Today’s Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Feingold in LA, CA-11, CA-50, CA-36, gas gouging, a little on the Dem Gov Primary, and a lot of neat stuff in “Other”.

Feingold Blogger Lunch

OK, first of all, some Los Angeles bloggers got to lunch with Russ Feingold yesterday. Here are their reports:

CA-11

  • Progressive 11th attended the Tracy Candidates’ Forum and reports back. Prog11 supports McNerney, near as I can tell, but assuming his report of Filson’s attitude toward the grassroots is correct, it isn’t very happy-making. More important, those grassroots are the people you need to run through brick walls for you in the general, so you might not want to dump on them in the primary.

  • Jerry McNerney was interviewd on the Quake today.

CA-50

CA-36

    Marcy Winograd, the primary challenger to Jane Harman in CA-36, introduced herself at MyDD (and yes, we need to send them an email). The comments are interesting. Down with Tyranny is all for Marcy.

Black Gold! Texas Tea!

Dem Gov Primary

“Other”