Rep victory in CA-50: Reps to keep the House?
[so the Republican candidate won the special election to replaced the
jailed Cunningham - here’s The Note’s
The Democratic on-the-record and not-so-on-the-record responses (the
Republicans were forced to put a lot of resources in the race,
Bilbray underperformed Bush 2004, Busby’s last-minute gaffe was
costly and she wasn’t such a great candidate, it’s a very
conservative district and Democrats will pick up our seats in Bluer
quarters, look at how Busby performed with independents, etc…) are,
trust us, not worth a warm bucket of anything.
Bottom line: Bilbray’s victory shows that although Republican
incumbents are running in a nasty national environment and although
they are expected to lose some seats in November, the GOP is still
favored to hold onto its majorities in both chambers because of
several baked-in-the-cake advantages, including money, few
retirements, safely-drawn seats, and a party apparatus that is adept
at turning campaigns to local issues and turning out voters through
micro targeting and hard work.