Francine Busby is the Donk candidate in tomorrow's special election for Congress in California, but she's having a problem with a pesky Freudian slip:
If an election can turn on a sentence, this could be the one: “You don't need papers for voting.”It's clear, Francine - you're recruiting illegal aliens to vote for you and work on your campaign.
On Thursday night, Francine Busby, the Democratic candidate for the 50th Congressional District, was speaking before a largely Latino crowd in Escondido when she uttered those words. She said yesterday she simply misspoke.
But someone taped it and a recording began circulating yesterday. After she made that statement at the meeting, Busby immediately said: “You don't need to be a registered voter to help (the campaign).” She said that subsequent statement was to clarify what she meant.
The recording, which was played yesterday on Roger Hedgecock's radio talk show, jolted the campaign.You notice she didn't say, "Sorry sir, but since you are an illegal alien, there's nothing you can do." Of course, I prefer "The border is just 30 miles away, head for it," but expecting a Donk to give up a potential "client" is always too much to ask.
Busby, a Cardiff school board member, is in a tight race with Republican Brian Bilbray, a congressman-turned-lobbyist, who has based his campaign on a tough anti-illegal-immigration stance. Busby has focused her campaign on ethics reform. The two are vying to replace Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who was jailed after pleading guilty to taking bribes.
Busby said she was invited to the forum at the Jocelyn Senior Center in Escondido by the leader of a local soccer league. Many of the 50 or so people there were Spanish speakers. Toward the end, a man in the audience asked in Spanish: “I want to help, but I don't have papers.”
It was translated and Busby replied: “Everybody can help, yeah, absolutely, you can all help. You don't need papers for voting, you don't need to be a registered voter to help.”
Bilbray said at worst, Busby was encouraging someone to vote illegally. At best, she was encouraging someone who is illegally in the country to work on her campaign.
Update: Even better, here's a transcript of ole Francine:
0:41 Busby: Yeah, you don't need papers for voting. You don't need to be a registered voter to help.
0:44 [Spanish translation of Busby]
0:49 Busby: Because you're the w-, You know, uh, people ask me, "What am I doing to reach out to, to your community?" And I will do everything I can to support you, to promote policies that are supportive of your education and healthcare and families.
1:03 Busby, continued: But, I can't, I can't bring people to vote for me. Only you can do that.
1:09 [Spanish interpretation]
1:19 Busby: And so we have staff members here who will be working with your leaders.
1:23 [Spanish interpretation]
1:27 Busby: And they'll explain, they'll give your information to go with it, both in English and Spanish
1:33 [Spanish interpretation]
1:36 Busby: And, and they'll, they'll, uh, give you information on how to do this.
1:40 [Spanish interpretation]
