After he won the June 6 special election to represent California’s 50th U.S. House District, Rep. Brian Bilbray (R.) told KOGO radio he won because he opposed President Bush on immigration: “To the Bush Administration, to the Senate flat out: My [Democratic] opponent ran on your ticket on amnesty. I ran against it, on no amnesty. The message ought to be that now, and here, it is the time to take care of this problem.”
The administration sees it differently. When HUMAN EVENTS Political Editor John Gizzi asked White House Press Secretary Tony Snow last week about Bilbray’s claim, Snow said: “Mr. Bilbray got a smaller percentage of the vote than Republicans got [in that district] for years. So I don’t know whether his position [on immigration] helped or hurt him.”
