![]() | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
|
Elections in California |
---|
![]() |
A special election was held in California's 50th congressional district to choose a new member of the U.S. Representative to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Republican Randy Cunningham, who resigned November 28, 2005 after pleading guilty to bribery, wire fraud, mail fraud, and tax evasion charges. (On March 3, 2006, he was sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison).
The special primary election was held on April 11, 2006. A candidate who received a majority of the vote would have served out the rest of Cunningham's term. As no candidate won a simple majority, the top vote-getters in each party, Democrat Francine Busby and Republican Brian Bilbray, competed in a runoff special general election held on June 6, 2006, the same day that primaries were held for the November 2006 general election.
Bilbray won the special election 49 percent to 45 percent and was sworn in as a U.S. Representative on June 13, 2006. In the June 6 primary election for the November 2006 election, both candidates won their party's nomination. In the November 2006 general election rematch, Bilbray won re-election.
Because the 50th is considered to be a heavily Republican district, it would have been considered major news if Busby had won. [1] "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." [2] For that reason, the National Republican Congressional Committee spent $5 million on this race. [3]
During the campaign, Arizona Senator John McCain cancelled a planned fundraiser for Bilbray at the last minute, after Bilbray criticized McCain's immigration bill as "amnesty" for illegal immigrants. [4]
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." This comment was in response to a question by a man who asked in Spanish, "I want to help, but I don't have papers." [5] The recording was circulated over the Internet and on radio. Republicans claimed Busby was encouraging people to vote illegally, while Busby claimed she misspoke and meant that a person does not need to be a registered voter to help her campaign (such as phoning registered voters). [6]
A number of irregularities in the election were alleged, including the swearing in of Bilbray by a member of his own party 17 days before the election was certified, "electronic voting machines sent out to the homes and cars of volunteers for up to 12 days prior to the election, and irregular election results like huge mega-precincts of absentee ballots where turnout was thousands of percent more than registered voters." The Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute raised several concerns about the fairness and accuracy of the vote count. [7] An election contest lawsuit sought a hand recount. [8] The court dismissed the suit on the basis that, once the House of Representatives had sworn in Bilbray, the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the challenge. [9]
Political analyst Larry Sabato wrote in his Crystal Ball newsletter: "What a difference four percentage points makes! That was Bilbray's margin over Busby, a gaffe-prone, lackluster candidate who was out of her league. With six years (1995–2001) under his belt from another California House district, former congressman Bilbray understood what it took to win a tough campaign, and riding the immigration issue, he did so. The DCCC forced the NRCC to pull out all the stops and spend a large fortune for Bilbray, but given the dam that might have burst had Busby won, it was worth every GOP penny for them." [10]
The June 6, 2006 run-off was held at the same time as the primary election for the biennial November 7, 2006 general election. This created a peculiar opportunity for voters to vote on the same ballot for two different people for the same post; one to immediately fill the vacant seat, the other to run in the November election.
Source | Date | Francine Busby (D) | Brian Bilbray (R) | Other | None | Undecided | Margin of Error |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Survey USA [11] | May 30 to June 1, 2006 | 45% | 47% | 9% | 0% | 4.7% | |
LRP (Dem) [12] | May 12–15, 2006 | 47% | 40% | 1% | 12% | 4.9% | |
Survey USA [13] | May 5–7, 2006 | 45% | 45% | 9% | 1% | 4.8% | |
Moore (Rep) [14] | April 29–30, 2006 | 43% | 37% | 2% | 5% | 13% | 5% |
On April 11, Democrat Francine Busby garnered 43.63 percent of the vote, 6.38 percentage points short of the majority necessary to avoid a runoff race. She 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, in a June 6 runoff.
In the June 6 runoff, Bilbray received a plurality with 78,341 votes (49.30%) to become the district's congressman for the remainder of the 109th Congress (until January 3, 2007).
For the new term beginning in 2007, the primaries were held on June 6, 2006, concurrent with the special election. Busby and Bilbray each captured their party's nomination (as did Libertarian Paul King and Peace and Freedom candidate Miriam E. Clark). In the November, 2006 general election, Bilbray was again declared the winner.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Francine Busby | 60,010 | 43.6 | |
Republican | Brian Bilbray | 20,952 | 15.2 | |
Republican | Eric Roach | 19,891 | 14.5 | |
Republican | Howard Kaloogian | 10,207 | 7.4 | |
Republican | Bill Morrow | 7,369 | 5.3 | |
Republican | Alan Uke | 5,477 | 4.0 | |
Republican | Richard Earnest | 2,957 | 2.1 | |
Republican | Bill Hauf | 2,207 | 1.6 | |
Republican | Scott Turner | 2,041 | 1.5 | |
Democratic | Chris Young | 1,808 | 1.3 | |
Independent | William Griffith | 1,111 | 0.8 | |
Republican | Victor Ramirez | 912 | 0.7 | |
Libertarian | Paul King | 819 | 0.6 | |
Republican | Jeff Newsome | 574 | 0.4 | |
Republican | Scott Orren | 345 | 0.2 | |
Republican | Delecia Holt | 261 | 0.2 | |
Republican | Bill Boyer | 204 | 0.1 | |
Republican | Milton Gale | 58 | 0.1 | |
Invalid or blank votes | 326 | 0.2 | ||
Total votes | 137,529 | 100.0 | ||
Turnout | 38.9 | |||
Republican hold |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Brian Bilbray | 78,341 | 49.6 | |
Democratic | Francine Busby | 71,146 | 45.0 | |
Independent | William Griffith | 6,027 | 3.8 | |
Libertarian | Paul King | 2,519 | 1.6 | |
Invalid or blank votes | 882 | 0.6 | ||
Total votes | 158,915 | 100.0 | ||
Turnout | 44.7 | |||
Republican hold |
The 2008 United States presidential election was the 56th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of John McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, and Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska. Obama became the first African American to be elected to the presidency, as well as being only the third sitting United States senator elected president, joining Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy. Meanwhile, this was only the second successful all-senator ticket since the 1960 election and is the only election where both major party nominees were sitting senators. This was the first election since 1952 in which neither the incumbent president nor vice president was on the ballot, as well as the first election since 1928 in which neither ran for the nomination.
Henry Bonilla is an American politician and former congressman who represented Texas's 23rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He was defeated in his bid for re-election by Ciro Rodriguez, a former Democratic member of Congress, in a special election runoff held on December 12, 2006. His term expired January 3, 2007 when the 110th Congress officially began.
The 2006 United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 7, 2006, to elect members to the United States House of Representatives. It took place in the middle of President George W. Bush's second term in office. All 435 seats of the House were up for election. Those elected served in the 110th United States Congress from January 3, 2007, until January 3, 2009. The incumbent majority party, the Republicans, had won majorities in the House consecutively since 1994, and were defeated by the Democrats who won a majority in the chamber, ending 12 years of Republican control in the House.
The 2006 Texas gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 2006, to elect the governor of Texas. The election was a rare five-way race, with incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry running for re-election against Democrat Chris Bell and Independents Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman, as well as Libertarian nominee James Werner.
In the fall of 2005, a special election was held in California's 48th congressional district to choose a United States representative to replace Republican Christopher Cox, who resigned effective August 2, 2005, to become Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A Special primary election was held on October 4. Because no candidate received more than 50% of the vote, a runoff general election took place on December 6, 2005. The top vote getter from each party moved to the runoff contest, which only required a candidate to receive a plurality of the vote. Republican candidate John Campbell ultimately won the runoff with only 44% of the vote, as there were three major candidates, rather than the usual two.
California's 50th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California, and encompasses parts of the Mid-Coast and northeastern parts of San Diego County. Scott Peters is currently the U.S. representative for California's 50th congressional district.
Brian Phillip Bilbray is an American Republican politician who represented parts of San Diego County in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001 and again from 2006 to 2013.
Francine Pocino Busby is a former member of the school board in Cardiff, California and was the chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party. She has four times been the Democratic candidate for Congress in California's 50th congressional district, in North San Diego County. In 2004, she ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Republican Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Before his term was up, Cunningham resigned due to his conviction on bribery charges, and Busby ran in the June 2006 special election to replace him; she lost to Republican Brian Bilbray, who again defeated her in the 2006 general election that November. She also ran unsuccessfully against Bilbray in 2010.
An open primary is a primary election that does not require voters to be affiliated with a political party in order to vote for partisan candidates. In a traditional open primary, voters may select one party's ballot and vote for that party's nomination. As in a closed primary, the highest voted candidate in each party then proceeds to the general election. In a nonpartisan blanket primary, all candidates appear on the same ballot and the two highest voted candidates proceed to the runoff election, regardless of party affiliation. The constitutionality of this system was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party in 2008, whereas a partisan blanket primary was previously ruled to be unconstitutional in 2000. The arguments for open primaries are that voters can make independent choices, building consensus that the electoral process is not splintered or undermined by the presence of multiple political parties.
The 2006 Texas 22nd congressional district election for the 110th Congress was held on November 7, 2006, and attracted considerable attention because this district was represented by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a prominent member of the Republican Party, who resigned after being indicted and subsequently winning the Republican primary. Because of Texas state law, Republicans, in order to hold on to the seat, would have had to win a write-in campaign, something that has only been done four other times in the history of U.S. congressional elections.
Shelley Ann Sekula-Gibbs is an American physician and politician, who serves as a director of The Woodlands, Texas Township board of directors. She served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district in 2006. A Republican, she won the special election to fill the seat for the last few weeks of the 109th United States Congress. Dr. Sekula-Gibbs has the distinction of being the first dermatologist and female physician to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. She previously served as a city councilwoman in Houston, Texas from 2002 to 2006.
The 2008 United States Senate election in Georgia took place on November 4, 2008. The runoff election took place on December 2, 2008. Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss, first elected in 2002, sought re-election to his position as a United States Senator from Georgia. He was challenged by Democratic nominee Jim Martin and Libertarian nominee Allen Buckley. After a runoff election on December 2, Chambliss was elected.
Scott Harvey Peters is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative from California's 50th congressional district since 2023, previously representing the 52nd congressional district from 2013 to 2023. His district includes both coastal and central portions of San Diego, as well as the suburbs of Poway and Coronado.
The 2008 congressional elections in Louisiana to determine representation for the state of Louisiana in the United States House of Representatives occurred November 4, 2008. Louisiana has seven seats in the House, apportioned according to the 2000 United States census. Representatives are elected for two-year terms; those elected will serve in the 111th Congress from January 4, 2009, until January 3, 2011. The election coincided with the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
The 2008 United States presidential election in California took place on November 4, 2008, in California as part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose 55 electors, the most out of any of the 50 states, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 2010 Texas gubernatorial election was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2010, to elect the governor of Texas. Incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry ran successfully for election to a third consecutive term. He won the Republican primary against U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and political newcomer, Debra Medina. The former mayor of Houston, Bill White, won the Democratic nomination. Kathie Glass, a lawyer from Houston and previous candidate for Texas Attorney General, won the Libertarian nomination. Deb Shafto was the nominee of the Texas Green Party. Andy Barron, an orthodontist from Lubbock, was a declared write-in candidate.
Elections were held on November 2, 2010, to determine Mississippi's four members of the United States House of Representatives. Representatives were elected for two-year terms to serve in the 112th United States Congress from January 3, 2011, until January 3, 2013. Primary elections were held on June 1, 2010, and primary runoff elections on June 22.
The 2012 San Diego mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, to elect the mayor for San Diego. Incumbent mayor Jerry Sanders was term-limited and ineligible to run for re-election.
The 2020 United States presidential election in California was held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, as part of the 2020 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. California voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, incumbent President Donald Trump, and running mate Vice President Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his running mate Kamala Harris, the junior senator from California. California had, in the 2020 election 55 electoral votes in the Electoral College, the most of any state. California was one of six states where Trump received a larger percentage of the two-party vote than he did in 2016. This election also marked the first time since 2004 that the Republican candidate won more than one million votes in Los Angeles County, due to increased turnout.
These six off-year races featured special elections to the 113th United States Congress to fill vacancies due to resignations in the United States House of Representatives. Two were due to Congressmen taking seats in the United States Senate, one resigned to take jobs in the private sector, one resigned to take a job in the public sector, and one resigned due to an impending federal indictment regarding misuse of campaign funds.