We'll see how this gaffe plays out.

DSH
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By Dani Dodge

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 3, 2006

"If an election can turn on a sentence, this could be the one: "You don't
need papers for voting."

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.

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.  ******

"She's soliciting illegal aliens to campaign for her and it's on tape - this
isn't exactly what you call the pinnacle of ethical campaign strategy,"
Bilbray said. "I don't know how she shows her face."  ******

The two later met in a debate in Carlsbad last night.

Earlier, San Diego Minutemen volunteer Anthony Porrello said he got the tape
from an anonymous Minuteman and passed it on to the news media and talk
radio. News of the gathering had circulated among local Minutemen before the
meeting, according to William Griffith, the independent candidate in the
race who has been endorsed by the San Diego Minutemen.

He attended, but did not hear the statement. He said he was in the back of
the room.

"I heard what I expected to hear from a Democrat who supports amnesty," he
said. Busby says she doesn't support amnesty, but backs the comprehensive
plan pushed by U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that includes opening a path
to citizenship for people in the United States illegally if they pay
penalties and abide by certain conditions.

Busby said that Republicans are now twisting her words. She does not in any
way support or advocate that illegal immigrants vote, she said.

"I was clarifying the question that was being asked in Spanish and then
stated that you do not have to be a registered voter to help the campaign
because there were many people who appeared to be to be under 18 in the
group who wanted to volunteer," she said in a statement. "I'm not surprised
that the Republican Party is making this last-minute, desperate ploy and it
is absolutely false."
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DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Vires et Honor