San Diego Politics Blog

While the GOP is attacking Busby with allegations of ethical violations, this blog has been sent information which suggests possible campaign infractions by Brian Bilbray’s folks.

Putting this together today and will post the report tonight or first thing tomorrow morning.

Things are definitely starting to get heated in the 50th congressional campaign with less than one month until Election Day.

Republicans are obviously determined to battle Busby on the ethics issue (which is the cornerstone of her campaign).  They are obviously also concerned with her standing in the polls and strength in fundraising, given the flurry of anti-Busby press releases issued the past several days.  This just in from the San Diego County Republican Party:

Ethics Complaint Filed Against Democrat Francine Busby

SAN DIEGO – Today, March 16, 2006, the Republican Party of San Diego County and the California Republican Party (CRP), sent an ethics complaint to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), the California Attorney General, and the San Diego District Attorney against Francine Busby, a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 50th Congressional District in San Diego County.

The ethics complaint alleges that Busby used and is using state government resources and receipt of corporate in-kind contributions to promote her campaign. Busby, who is a professor at California State San Marcos, promotes her candidacy on her California State University, San Marcos website.

Busby, who has made ethics a centerpiece of her campaign, has yet to comment on the complaint, which was received by the FEC at 2:00 pm today in Washington. A violation potentially puts the tax status of the university in jeopardy.

“Francine Busby misused government property to further her personal political ambitions,” said Duf Sundheim, Chairman of the CRP. “This is especially shameful because it was committed by someone we trusted to teach our children. Such conduct should not be tolerated in our schools, much less in someone who is seeking to become a member of highest legislative body in the country. When is it comes to ethics, Ms. Busby has earned an “F””.

Second Time School Facilities Used to Promote Busby’s Campaign

Earlier this month, Busby coordinated a campaign appearance ("tour") with Democrat State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell at the Ada W. Harris School in Cardiff, where Busby is a board member. The same facilities and staff support have not been made available to other candidates, and the press advisory for the event was distributed by Busby’s congressional campaign committee.

The use of taxpayer-owned computers at Cal State San Marcos to promote Busby’s campaign seems to be right in line with Busby’s use of taxpayer-owned schools in Cardiff to promote her candidacy.

The San Diego Union-Tribune has a story on big-spending by three Republican candidates for Congress:  Eric Roach (spent $1.25 million so far), Bill Hauf (spent $800,000 so far) and Alan Uke (spent $547,000 so far).

The story does not mention reports that Uke may be in the process of exiting the race.  This blog has received reports this morning that Uke has told some people he’s "in the race until the very end" and others who have been told by Uke that he’s "reassessing" where things stand.  His campaign website has not posted news since February 15th.

If a candidate in this race is scaling back their advertising, as Uke has done, then that candidate has already thrown in the towel.  Uke’s spent over $500,000 to attract just 3.6% of the vote according to the new Competitive Edge Research poll.  Supposedly there are other private polls floating around, and all show the same thing:  Uke is mired far back in the pack.  His standing in the polls will not change for the better if he has stopped putting new money into the campaign.  Thus, the writing’s on the wall.