San Diego Politics Blog

Democrat candidate for the 50th, Francine Busby, is working hard to maintain national Democratic Party support for her campaign for Congress.

The morning after the April 11th election we learned that Senator Dianne Feinstein called to pledge support to help ensure Busby’s campaign was victorious in June/November.

And yesterday the #2 Democrat in the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer (House Democratic Whip), was a headliner in a Busby victory celebration.  The goal?  To generate the same kind of national support from Democrat Party officials and progressive activists for the June 6th race as Busby enjoyed in the Special Election campaign.

Republican Eric Roach continues to move ahead with a challenge to Brian Bilbray for the June GOP primary.  The Flash Report’s Jon Fleischman reports that Roach has a brand new radio ad he’s running AFTER the election.

Obviously Roach is laying the groundwork for a June run, and has now earned conservative Republican Howard Kaloogian’s backing.

Hear Eric Roach’s newest ad here at the Flash Report.

The Union-Tribune has more on this story here.

A donnybrook of a race for the 50th in the June primary appears to be shaping up.

The North County Times has the exclusive:  Howard Kaloogian will NOT run in June, but he will instead back fellow Republican, Eric Roach, presuming Roach runs.

This would help set in motion a conservative vs. moderate battle in the GOP pitting supporters of the #2 and #3 Republican candidates against Bilbray, who was the top Republican in the April 11th balloting.

Read the story "50th: Kaloogian out, Roach decision unknown" here.

On Monday, second place GOP candidate Roach could not be reached for comment, but a campaign spokesman said the millionaire businessman has not yet made up his mind whether to run in the primary. And third-place finisher and former state Assembleyman Howard Kaloogian said in a phone interview that if Roach decides to run in the primary, he would support him and not Bilbray.

Perhaps lending strength to Devereux’s argument was Kaloogian’s statement Monday that he is dropping out of the Republican primary race and will support Roach if he decides to run. Staunch conservative Kaloogian came in third among Republican candidates in the April 11 election, winning a 7.44 percent share of the votes. He said he spent the weekend mulling his options and decided against running in the primary.

"Instead, I will enjoy being a private citizen," Kaloogian said.

If Roach decides to stay in the primary race, Kaloogian said he would choose him over Bilbray.

"I would like to support a conservative and clearly I think Roach is," one Kaloogian said.

Analysis of these developments can be found at the Words Have Power blog here.