Check this out.

This just made me laugh. It's an AP story, and it starts out like this.

Marilyn Brewer, a leading Republican candidate for the nation's only open House seat, stared into the TV camera and proclaimed her support for the president.

She was not talking about George W. Bush.

"I stand side by side with Ronald Reagan on less taxes and less government," Brewer told voters at a candidate forum. ......

Not a word about Bush.

Later, the self-described loyal Republican who voted for the president in 2004 explained her calculus: "If the election was this year ... he would not be re-elected." ......

But Carl Forti of the National Republican Congressional Committee cautioned against reading too much into the contest.

"This is about electing Congressman Chris Cox's successor," he said. "This election is not about President Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger or anyone else."

So, Mr. Forti, what you are saying is that association with Bush or Schwarzenkoffer is a political liability?


This election is to fill Chris Cox's seat who went to the SEC (paging Sen Frist). It must be said that this is the Orange County California seat, so despite having voted for Bush, probably pretty sympathetic to the criticisms. Also, she's not the frontrunner, some party stooge supported by Schwarzennegger leads and this is just an alternate election strategy. (if I misspelled Schwarzengoofball, I don't care. It's my policy that since he's a joke, and I'm not gonna waste my time learning to spell his name. At least Jesse Ventura accepted that he was a joke.)

Her strategy seems to be to pin the favorite into defending Bush in the hopes that the Republicans of Orange County will use this as a referendum against Bush. Dem cadidates take note.

UPDATE: Just to give you an idea of some of her competition. There are seventeen running for this seat.

When voters in one of California's most conservative congressional districts go to the polls on Tuesday, they will find a wild card on the ballot: The founder of the Minuteman movement, who has become a lightning rod in the furor over America's borders.

While Jim Gilchrist -- leader of a volunteer border patrol group once slammed as "vigilantes" by President George W. Bush -- is considered a long shot to win the special election to fill a seat vacated by Republican Christopher Cox, he has mined a deep vein of voter anger over illegal immigration.

"I have struck the mother lode of patriotism," Gilchrist told Reuters, referring to polls showing 80 percent of Californians were concerned about immigration. .......

(and on the favorite)

Gilchrist faces a formidable foe in Campbell, a conservative Republican who, as a wealthy entrepreneur from Newport Beach, is an easy fit in the mostly affluent neighborhoods of the Orange County district that tend to turn out for elections.

Campbell won the endorsement of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and has also taken a strong stance against illegal immigration -- coming out against Bush's controversial "guest worker" program.