Yesterday's Election - Flopping Aces

Looks like most of the votes didn't go the way the Democrats wanted yesterday:

A former Republican congressman narrowly beat his Democratic rival early Wednesday for the House seat once held by jailed Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a race closely watched as a possible early barometer of next fall's vote.

Republican Brian Bilbray emerged victorious after a costly and contentious special election race against Democrat Francine Busby, a local school board member.

Brian Bilbray, Republican candidate in the 50th congressional district, smiles as he arrives at an election night party held at the Westgate Hotel in San Diego, Tuesday, June 6, 2006. Bilbray and Democrat Francine Busby, a local school board member who ran against Cunningham in 2004, was closely watched as a possible early barometer of next fall's vote. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Bilbray had 58,566 votes, or 49 percent, to Busby's 53,598 votes, or 45 percent. "I think that we're going back to Washington," Bilbray told cheering supporters.

The race _ one of dozens of contests Tuesday in eight states _ was viewed by Democrats as an opportunity to capture a solidly Republican district and build momentum on their hopes to capture control of the House.

Additionally both liberal "raise taxes" propositions in California were defeated . Proposition 82 had 59% against and 44% for while 81 had 53% against and 47% for.

Still, the left is trying to spin the Busby loss with the usual "but it was so close" argument. It's true that Cunningham had won the last election by more and the Democrats did put a scare into the Republicans this year. But thats a good thing in my view. We need a scare.

Hell, you would think after the Republican was put in jail for corruption that a Democrat would win easily since their WHOLE strategy is to run on the "culture of corruption" mantra and they lost. Does this really give them a "moral victory"? Don't think so. Plus they couldn't get anymore voters out as Rick at Right Wing Nut House noticed:

Democrats would be hard pressed to claim much of a victory. In the 2002 contest, the Democratic challenger received a little less than 51,000 votes – about the same number of votes as Busby received yesterday. Despite a heinous corruption scandal, general discontent with Republicans nationwide, and President Bush’s low approval numbers, Democrats got about the same number of votes as they did in the last off year election. And despite the reduced turnout, it can be argued that Democratic voters, smelling blood in the water, were much more likely to turn out than Republicans.

Patrick at Ankle Biting Pundits notices the spin being spun by the MSM already:

Exibit A in the MSM’s “nothing to see here” approach to the CA-50 race is the WaPo report, which reads thus:

The 50th Congressional District, which covers affluent San Diego County, leans heavily Republican, and the race to succeed Cunningham was considered a bellwether to see if corruption scandals and President George Bush’s sinking approval ratings would open the door for a Democratic resurgence.

Leans heavily Republican? President Bush won re-election with only 55% of the vote.

Scott at Powerline notices the same bias:

In the free articles that the Wall Street Journal sends out to bloggers each morning, I've noticed a steady stream of political coverage whose primary purpose seems to be demoralization of Republicans. Yesterday, for example, the Journal mailed out "Midterm tea leaves signal hot water for Republicans" by Jackie Calmes. Albert Hunt may be gone, but his spirit lives on in the Journal's Washington bureau. Calmes wrote:

Two elections being held today are being closely watched as potential barometers for the fall: a special election in California to replace former Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who has pleaded guilty to bribery charges; and a Senate primary in Montana, where scandal-touched Sen. Conrad Burns faces a Republican challenge.

Burns won his primary handily yesterday, and may or may not win reelection this coming November. I won't predict. But I will predict that Calmes won't be back using these two races as barometers for the results this fall.

Ed Morrissey thinks that the Democrats had a chance in this election because there were so few seats they had to put resources in. This won't be the case come November:

One has to remember that the Democrats could afford to focus national resources in this one-off situation that would not be possible in November, when they have to contest 434 more House seats (plus 33 in the Senate). With the previous winner serving time for corruption, it would be expected that the incumbent party would have difficulty convincing the district to turn out in great numbers — and indeed, turnout remained low throughout the state for this primary election, which in this district would hurt Bilbray.

None of this supports the contention that this was a "message" race at all. Even with Cunningham's conviction of the worst kind of corruption, the Democrats could not poll more than 46% of the vote in this district with all of their national effort. Thanks to California gerrymandering, CA-50 appears shaken but not stirred.

Either way you look at it, the KOSkiddies are 1-19 . The only thing they can hang their hat on in this election was supporting a liberal Democrat, Montana Jon Tester, against the moderate Democrat John Morrison. The more liberal Democrat won, but is this going to be a good thing?

Same thing goes for the Governors race in California. Arnold must be smiling. His opponent is going to be Phil Angelides, a waaayyyy liberal Democrat who supports drivers licenses and tuition for illegal immigrants. Couldn't have asked for an easier opponent to run against.

All in all, a good day for Republicans.

Others Blogging:

Hell, you would think after the Republican was put in jail for corruption that a Democrat would win easily since their WHOLE strategy is to run on the “culture of corruption” mantra and they lost. Does this really give them a “moral victory”? Don’t think so.

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