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Francine Pocino Busby (born March 3, 1951) is the Democratic candidate in the 2006 General Election for California's 50th congressional district in northwest San Diego County. Her Republican opponent is Brian Bilbray, who narrowly defeated her in the June 6, 2006 Special Election to fill the vacancy in the same district caused by the resignation of Randy "Duke" Cunningham. She intends to run in the fall of 2006 against Bilbray in the regular election.
Personal Busby was born in Los Angeles, California, to an Italian American family, and grew up in nearby Arcadia. She graduated with a BA in Humanities from UC Irvine. From 1974–1981 Busby was a travel manager and marketer for the Walt Disney Travel Company. She married her husband David Busby in 1979. They had two children, Maria and Michael, and Busby quit her job to raise them. In 1988 the family moved to Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California. Political She ran two successful school bond campaigns in 1998 and 2000, became president of the Cardiff Education Foundation in 2000, was appointed to fill a vacancy to the Cardiff School Board, and, in 2002, was elected for a full school board term. She also serves in various community organizations. Busby ran unsuccessfully against Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the Federal Representative in her district, in the 2004 U.S. House election. She got 37% of the vote versus Cunningham's 58%. Cunningham later resigned on November 28, 2005, after pleading guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion (for underreporting his 2004 income). Busby has made ethics reform a centerpiece of her campaign, calling for bi-partisan support of her ethics reform proposal, the "Clean House Act." Her campaign has been endorsed by EMILY's List, Democracy for America, and a number of federal, state and local officials, including California State Treasurer and 2006 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides. A pro-choice candidate, Busby was the founding President of the Casa Teresa Central Guild, an Orange County shelter for homeless pregnant women. 2006 special Congressional election Initial vote The initial vote in the special election was held on April 11, 2006. If a single candidate had won a simple majority, he or she would have served out the rest of Cunningham's term. Busby garnered 43.75 percent of the vote, 6.26 percentage points short of the majority necessary to avoid a runoff race. As no candidate won a simple majority, the top vote-getters in each party faced each other in a runoff on June 6, 2006. Because the 50th is considered to be a heavily Republican district, it would have been considered major news if Busby won.• "This is a biggie," said Carl Luna, a political science professor at San Diego's Mesa College. "Everyone is going to be reading the tea leaves as a predictor of November." • For that reason, the National Republican Congressional Committee spent $5 million on this race. • Controversies On June 2, five days before the special congressional election, Busby was recorded telling a largely Hispanic group that "You can all help--you don't need papers for voting, you don't need to be a registered voter to help." She made this comment in response to a question by a man who asked in Spanish, "I want to help, but I don't have papers."• The recording was circulated over the Internet and on radio. Republicans claim Busby was encouraging people to vote illegally, while Busby claims she meant that a person does not need to be a registered voter to support her campaign. Runoff results In the June 6 runoff, Busby faced the leading vote getter from the two other parties participating: Republican Brian Bilbray and Libertarian Paul King, as well as independent candidate William Griffith. Busby lost to Bilbray 49.3% to 45.5%. Bilbray thereby won the right to finish Cunningham's term, through January 2007. 2006 regular Congressional election June 6, 2006, was also the date of the primary for the November general election. Busby and Bilbray each captured their party's nomination (as did Libertarian Paul King and Peace and Freedom candidate Miriam E. Clark), and will compete again in the November 2006 general election. Bilbray with the advantage of incumbency, took an early lead. Both the Cook Political Report and CQPolitics rated the race as Republican Favored. But Busby gained in October (a late October poll by SurveyUSA showed Busby trailing by just 3 points) for a number of reasons: the general political climate seen as disadvantageous to the GOP, Busby's outraising Bilbray, and Bilbray's low profile campaign, on Oct. 23, CQPolitics changed their rating to Leans Republican.• See also | ||||||||
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