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…
March 3rd, 2006 at 12:00 am
I would think Mr. Bilbray would be proud to be a lobbyist. It is his chosen profession. I don’t think anyone forced him to become one. He should wear it as a badge of honor(snark). Scream it from the rooftops Brian. There are worse things to put down as ballot titles like attorney, etc.
March 3rd, 2006 at 12:00 am
A millionare candidate with no record and his team of trial lawyers trying to stop an opponent from using a perfectly legitimate ballot title. That will play well with voters.
March 3rd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Yeah, Roach may take Bilbray out…but he will take himself out in the process. It’s like saying “I’m the MOST petty candidate! Vote for me!” Sadly this is a rich guy with unlimited resources trying to drain a guy with less money with legal fees. I thought using the courts to influence elections was something only democrats did. Pretty sad day.
March 3rd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Someone should take Howard Kaloogian to ” Dummy Court” for using the term “Attorney” in his ballot title. Don’t get me wrong the stupid things Howard does in this campaign put a big smile on my face, but I really thought the guy was a little smarter the this.
March 4th, 2006 at 12:00 am
With all due respects to you guys on Roach, Bilbray is a lobbyist and he is running the type of outsider campaign that will give him the best chance of getting elected.
Mr. Gillard, as Bilbray’s consultant, why on earth would you want Congressman Bill Thomas listed as a supporter of your client? After that awful highway bill, that is the last thing you should do after Cunningham gate. Bilbray is running in San Diego County and not Kern County.
Roach or Morrow can use this against you.