Gilchrist Funding

In a John and Ken interview with John Campbell

More on D-48 Run Off Results

From Jim Gilchrist's web site.

A total of 89,991 votes were cast in the primary, representing 22% of registered voters in the district.

In assessing Tuesday's results, the most astonishing political result is that Gilchrist garnered nearly 27% of the precinct votes actually cast on Election Day (as opposed to votes cast early by absentee ballot)--demonstrating a 21-point surge following the two weeks of Early/Absentee Voting, compared to a 15-point drop for Campbell on election day.

Early/Absentee vote:

Campbell 52%
Brewer 15%
Young 10%
Gilchrist 6%

Election Day vote:

Campbell 37%
Gilchrist 27%
Brewer 19%
Young 7%

It's worth noting that over 60% of all ballots cast were submitted as "absentee" ballots (which under California law are essentially equivalent to voting by mail). Many, if not most, of these ballots were submitted weeks earlier—before the Gilchrist campaign made its final push prior to Tuesday's election.

The Gilchrist campaign now has two full months to continue to put Jim Gilchrist in front of the electorate before the general election—and clearly, as people come to know Jim, they love him and what he stands for.

D-48 Election Results

Campbell (R) 46.0%
Brewer (R) 16.2%
Gilchrist (I) 14.5%
Democrat ~12.0%

Mr. Gilchrist performed well enough to send the message. He should be congratulated.

With more time before the run-off (Dec 6) he may perform even better.

That said, Campbell is taking reasonable positions with regard to immigration, so this race is no longer "critical" other than keeping the issue in the news.

The focus must remain on replacing open-borders Repubicans like Jim Koble with pro-border Republicans like Randy Graf.

Election Day Message from Jim Gilchrist

October 4, 2005

Dear Voter,

Ever since you helped convince me to run for Congress, all of our work has been geared up for this day. Election Day.

We have all joined together in this effort. I am very grateful for your hard work of walking precincts with me throughout Orange County, and attending the candidate forums and meetings. I thank you for the personal phone calls you've made to so many of your neighbors. We could never have gotten to this day without the generous financial support you have given my campaign, enabling me to reach out to still more voters through our events, mail, television, and radio.

But now, today -- Tuesday, October 4 -- between 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM, I need you to go to the polls and cast your vote.

Read the rest here.

Introduction

This blog is directed to covering the "nuts and bolts" politics of immigration. I am interested in both reducing illegal and legal immigration, but with a greater emphasis on illegal immigration.

With the next Presidential election more than three years away the current focus will be on mid term congressional races. The goal is to have a minimum number of posts to make the blog easy to scan through.

One or two posts a week should be the norm.

Please feel free to place any questions, articles or suggestions in the comments section.

Jim Gilchrist debates John Campbell on John and Ken

Jim Gilchrist, head of the Minutemen, debated the "mainstream" Republican candidate John Campbell as part of the special election being held in Orange County California.

Jim Gilchrist has run a surprisingly effective campaign for a novice. He has run limited radio and TV ads of reasonably high quality. He was also very well spoken in the debate with Jim Campbell.

This is an "open" election with approximately sixteen candidates. I think Gilchrist will be in the top four, but we shall see. If no candidate wins more than 50% then there will be a run off.

While I hope Jim Gilchrist wins, the debate demonstrated that his effort has been a success regardless of the outcome. During much of the debate John Campbell was basically trying to out "nativist" Jim Gilchrist. It was a pleasant change.

John Campbell agreed with almost every immigration control stance including: no in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, no driver licenses for illegals, tougher enforcement against corporate hiring of illegals and revocation of the US birth citizenship right.

Campbell further promised to hit the ground running if he won tomorrow and that he would make some key anti-immigration votes as soon as this Thursday if elected by more than 50% on Tuesday.

The Congressman being replaced is "moderate" Republican Chris Cox, who now works at the SEC(?). Therefore, the election of either Campbell or Gilchrist will move the House ever more slightly in the right direction.

That said, I would rather have Jim Gilchrist win the election. I have no problem putting a "bomb thrower" such as Gilchrist into a House seat. However, based on John Campbell's repeated immigration restrictionist statements at the debate the bottom line is that, win or lose, Jim Gilchrist has scored another political success.

JOHN & KEN BROADCAST LIVE IN THE OC

Join John & Ken, TODAY, Oct 3 from 3-7pm at the Ayres Hotel in Laguna Woods. Tomorrow is the Special Primary Election for the 48th district of California – the election to replace Chris Cox in congress. We’ll have two of the top candidates, State Senator John Campbell and Co-Founder of the Minuteman Project, Jim Gilchrist. They’ll debate and take your questions. Also we will have the California Border Police petitions for you to sign and Assemblyman Ray Haynes, the author of the initiative, to answer your questions.