FLASHREPORT

You may have read in my commentary yesterday that there is currently a controversy underway in the race to succeed the disgraced Duke Cunningham in the 50th Congressional District in San Diego County.
 
The issue at hand is that one of the candidates, former Congressman Brian Bilbray (pictured), is a registered federal lobbyist, but really isn't keen on listing that particular profession as his ballot title.  So Bilbray, who has made about a third of his lobbying income over the past six years from an immigration reform group, filed as his ballot title: "Immigration Reform Advocate" - which apparently didn't pass muster with the Secretary of State's office.  After some back-and-forth, the Secretary's office signed off on "Immigration Reform Consultant."
 
Well, the predictable next chapter in this story has now begun.  Duane Admire is a voter in the 50th CD, apparently an admirer and fan of one of the other candidates in the race, businessman Eric Roach.  Admire has retained crack elections-law attorney Andy Pugno and they have filed a lawsuit seeking to get Bilbray's ballot designation to be a little less...creative.
 
We caught up with Pugno, who had this to say:  "The bottom line with this case is that these laws were designed to put limits on the creativity of candidates who want to appear as something they are not.  This is a classic case of a candidate who happens to be lobbyist, but does not voters to know it."
 
This matter will be heard in Sacramento Superior Court in the coming days, and it will be interesting to see what the judge has to say.  (For those legal beagles out there, Pugno's court filings are attached).
 
The irony of this whole debate is that by the time that Bilbray's opponents are done with him, there won't be one voter in the district who doesn't know that he is a lobbyist anyways.
 
We'll keep an eye on this one as it continues to develop...