A Couple Of Big Local Elections On Tap For Today

The first one is in my neighborhood for the race to fill the vacant 35th Senate District. This race is going down to the wire with Dana Point Councilwomen Diane Harkey poised to claim the seat against RINO Republican Tom Harman. I did some calling over the weekend for Diane and from the responses I got, she is going to win this thing from her huge absentee ballot effort. I didn't have one Republican tell me they were voting for Mr. Harman. There will be a victory party at Tentations tonight in Newport Beach.

The other big race is down south in the 50th Congressional District. This is the seat vacated by Duke Cunningham because he abused his office and resigned in disgrace. Normally this would be a slam dunk race for the GOP, but Duke's scandal has made this thing competitive. No one is probably going to receive the 50%+1 needed for outright victory tonight. The intrigue is really on the GOP side. Can squishy Republican Brian Bilbray eke out a victory? Is newcomer Eric Roach going to shock the establishment with his showing? Can Howard Kaloogian, who by the way I am supporting, put together a great ground game and shock the pollsters and everyone else with a huge grassroots effort to pull out a win? All these questions will be answered tonight. It should be fun viewing for political geeks like myself.