Ouch....Did Busby Blow It? "You don't need papers for voting."

[kpete]

50th Congressional District – Special Election
Busby on defense, says she misspoke
By Dani Dodge
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 3, 2006

If an election can turn on a sentence, this could be the one: “You don't need papers for voting.”

On Thursday night, Francine Busby, the Democratic candidate for the 50th Congressional District, was speaking before a largely Latino crowd in Escondido when she uttered those words. She said yesterday she simply misspoke.

But someone taped it and a recording began circulating yesterday. After she made that statement at the meeting, Busby immediately said: “You don't need to be a registered voter to help (the campaign).”
She said that subsequent statement was to clarify what she meant.

The recording, which was played yesterday on Roger Hedgecock's radio talk show, jolted the campaign.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/50thdistrict/20060603-9999-1mi3busby.html

[IndyOp]

1. Smear. Shit. (n/t)

[skipos]

2. Give. Me. A. Break. Repubs must be pretty desperate if they are trying

to fly this crock of sh#t.

[robinlynne]

4. That they are. I read (here on DU I think) that cheney and mccain are

both campaigning personally against francine.
if anyone wants to help her, moveon has a way for you to call from home to get the democrats out to vote in her district through its website moveon.org. or moveon.pac.
i'm going to phone for her and I'm not in her district, but it is a very important race.

[AX10]

3. The GOP is trying to spin anything they can in order to...

swiftboat we Democrats this year.

[kpete]

5. follow-up

June 04, 2006
Much ado about nothing

Quite a few people are in high dudgeon over California Democratic congressional candidate Francine Busby and her apparent solicitation of votes from illegal aliens, including my own colleague Kim Priestap. As a hard-nose on the illegal alien issue, the thought of this happening infuriated me, so I started looking into it myself. And my conclusion? As Dorothy Parker said, "there's no 'there' there."

From the full context of the discussion, it's clear to me that Ms. Busby was asked if one needed to prove one was a legal voter in order to "help" her campaign -- with the clear implication of volunteering to work for her,not simply vote. She replied that they do not check IDs for volunteers, and anyone was welcome to assist. And under current law, they I do not believe they are required to verify the immigration status of an unpaid volunteer.

Whether or not that should be the case, that's the way it is under current law. And whether or not Busby should be held to a higher standard than the legal minimum is another question.

Yes, it is possible to interpret the discussion as a solicitation for voter fraud. But it's a hell of a stretch.

more at:
http://wizbangblog.com/2006/06/04/much-ado-about-nothing.php