Well, good news in California. Republican Brian Bilbray defeated Francine "You Don't Need Papers To Vote" Busby. Bilbray will now finish the seven months remaining in the term of former Rep. "Duke" Cunnigham. The Los Angeles Times notes this race was "billed as a test of whether Democrats can wrest control of Congress from the GOP."

Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman held a conference call today to discuss the results of the election. It was noted that Bilbray won the seat by 4.2%, and Busby's 45% of the vote was barely any improvement over John Kerry’s performance in that district. The bottom line: the Democrats "culture of corruption" message is not working. Republicans may have had to invest more money in this race to counter the Democrat's smear campaign, but in the end, a victory is a victory, and the results of this bellwether election should have Democrats greatly concerned about November.

I unfortunately had to miss the conference call but you can read about it here and here.

Also, Daily Kos is now 0-20...

UPDATE: Novak echoes...

For all the hype and the money spent on the race between former Rep. Brian Bilbray (R) and Francine Busby (D), Busby, in her loss to Bilbray, failed to exceed significantly the percentage won here by John Kerry in 2004. This is significant, because although she will have another shot at Bilbray in November, the turnout should have favored her yesterday, since Republicans had no other races to drive their turnout and Democrats had a gubernatorial primary.

The outcome proves that even with corrupt former Republican Rep. Duke Cunningham’s name fresh in the news, low turnout, a weak candidate like Bilbray and dissension within the GOP ranks (that led to negative Republican campaigning against Bilbray), Democrats cannot win here. Even here, where it should have mattered most, the “culture of corruption” mantra wasn’t enough to convince voters to pull the Democratic lever.

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