Daily Pilot: (Young) Already looking ahead

[question everything]

Published December 8, 2005

Already looking ahead

Democratic candidate readies to take on John Campbell again in 2006; Gilchrist is undecided.

By Alicia Robinson, Daily Pilot

When Rep. John Campbell begins campaigning to keep the 48th Congressional District seat he won Tuesday, he may face familiar opposition. Democrat Steve Young took 28% of Tuesday's votes according to unofficial results, and he said Wednesday that he's already begun planning his 2006 campaign.

"We've got a person back in Washington now who received less than half the votes in the district, and we think that's very telling," Young said, referring to the 44.6% of votes Campbell received Tuesday. That percentage is of the ballots cast. But the percentage of voters who participated in the election was just a quarter of the 405,655 registered voters in the district.

After drawing national attention to the race with his fame as the Minuteman Project founder, American Independent Party candidate Jim Gilchrist wasn't discouraged by his third-place finish Tuesday and said he may seek a rematch with Campbell next year or pursue another federal office.

(snip)

According to the Federal Election Commission website, it cost Campbell $1.35 million as of Nov. 16 to win less than 45%, a fact Young points out with interest. "If it's such a safe Republican district how come it cost them so much to run a candidate who only got 44% of the vote?" he said.

(snip)

But if history is any guide, what will likely last longest is Campbell as Newport Beach's congressman. Former Republican Rep. Chris Cox, now chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, held the seat from 1988 to 2005. "Campbell just got elected to a lifetime seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, period," Petracca said.

http://www.dailypilot.com/politics/story/32023p-46937c.html