The most recent independent poll had Francine Busby at 45% with the nearest of the many Republicans at about 14%. Busby was edging up on the 50% plus one that she needed for outright victory in the April 11 election to replace Duke Cunningham. An early victory would send her straight to Washington and we could avoid the arduous runoff campaign.

The GOP must have done a poll of its own and evidently got very scared. They have plunked $330,000 for attack ads on Francine Busby whom they previously ignored as a serious contender. Now they're afraid that she'll walk away with it all on April 11.

I just saw the ad, which is going to play a lot with that much money. It ridicules her stand on ethics reforms and gives the impression that she is being bought by special interests herself. From her over 8,000 individual donors they found one ex-politician on the donor list who faced accusations with John McCain and others 15 years ago and was subsequently cleared.  That's the best they could do.

The ugly ad has only one redeeming quality: the tag line at the end that says is was paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee.

And who has given money to the NRCC? Duke Cunningham, his co-conspirators, and Tom DeLay. The money from the corrupt politicians is still in play.

NOW is the time for us to all band together to fight the Republican money machine with money. Send Francine whatever you can, so that she can run ads to counter this vicious and deceptive attack. Donate now: www.busbyforcongress.org. One thousand of us contributing $333 will equal the national Republicans. Or 1000 of us contributing $33.

On the bottom message line for groups type in "Fight back, Francine." Don't delay. Let's get this started.

www.busbyforcongress.org

Whenever I go to my email I am amazed at the number of people who conatact me from around the country who are interested in Francine Busby. She is running to fill the vacated seat of the disgraced-about-to-be=sentenced-ex-Congr essman Randy Cunningham.

A couple from Los Angeles is coming down for a long weekend to volunteer at campaign headquarters and on the streets.  A group near Boston is offering to campaign by phone. San Diego people are saying, "I'm not in the district, but I want to help."

Why? This is the race to watch for 2006.  The election is scheduled for April 11.  Find out what everybody is talking about by visiting the website at www.busbyforcongress.com. You can even go to the Grassroots Page and sign up for Americans for Busby, a group spread out around the country supporting Francine Busby online.

Iowa and New Hampshire have moved west in 2006.  A special election is being held on April 11 to replace Duke Cunningham in California.  This first election of 2006 will set the trend for the rest of the country. It's a Republican-leaning district in which the Democrat Francine Busby is a strong contender.

I worked in the 2004 Busby campaign against Duke Cunningham.  It was very frustrating to see Duke soaking up the advantages of incumbency and refusing to even pretend to campaign. I tried to get the local media to pay attention to Cunningham's arrogance and radical right agenda, but no one would pay attention.  Now everyone is paying attention.

Duke's far right agenda brought out a group of hard-core volunteers to support Busby in the last election.  We raised nearly a quaarter million from small donations.  This time we have already raised over half a million, far more than any other candidate.  The grassroots volunteers are working every day.

Winning a "solid Republican" district in this special election is going to set the tone for the nation in 2006.  Francine Busby can be the first of a new freshman class in 2006 that is not going to settle for business as usual.  Check out the campaign at www.BusbyForCongress.com. You can make donations and even sign up for a grassroots group online.

John Lee Evans
Grassroots Organizer