Arnold Schwarzenegger,  California Republican Party,  Politics,  Special Election 2005

California Special Election CA 48 Watch: Election Day

October 4, 2005 /

Senator John Campbell with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

The ASSociated Press has 17 Candidates Compete for Open House Seat.

Seventeen candidates in Southern California’s heavily Republican Orange County competed Tuesday in a special election for the nation’s only open House seat, a vacancy created when Rep. Christopher Cox (news, bio, voting record) left to become chief of the
Securities and Exchange Commission. The race was expected to become a contest between the conservative and moderate factions of the GOP.

State Sen. John Campbell, a conservative former car dealer endorsed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was considered the front-runner.

But Marilyn Brewer, a former state assemblywoman who has kept her distance from President Bush and emphasized her support for abortion rights and the environment, hoped to upset Campbell with support from moderate Republicans, Democrats and independents.

And how will Minuteman organizer Jim Gilchrist figure into the mix?

In the Orange County congressional race, third-party candidate Jim Gilchrist, a co-founder of the Minuteman Project that has organized volunteer patrols along the Mexican border to stop illegal immigrants, threatened to siphon off support for Campbell among GOP conservatives.

Stay tuned for election results later this evening.

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