[UPDATED (13 June) as final results continue to trickle in.]
With 100% of precincts accounted for, preliminary results show the 50th House district in California held by the Republican party in the 6 June special election.
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Brian Bilbray (R), 49.66%
Francine Busby (D), 44.96%
Bill Griffith (ind), 3.79%
Pail King (Libtn.), 1.60%
Bilbray’s margin was just over 4400 votes.
Busby won just over 68,000 votes, or roughly 8,000 more than in the first round in April, when turnout was slightly lower. Turnout in the district’s runoff was reported to be around 42% (a few percentage points higher than in the rest of the County, as well as a few percentage points higher than in April).
Bilbray’s 49.7% is almost four percentage points worse than the whole field of 18 Republican hopefuls got in April, but it was enough.
Former Congressman and now Convict Duke Cunningham beat Busby, 58–36, in November, 2004.
In the second division of the special election, the Libertarian more than doubled his votes from round one to the runoff and Minutemen-endorsee Griffiths more than quadrupled his votes.
After the first round, when Busby won 43.8%, I said:
While my post on election day gave some scenarios in which she might win, she and the party indeed will have to settle for the moral victory–at least for now. She gets another crack at Bilbray (who won 54% in the concurrent closed Republican primary) in November.
