From the Wall Street Journal Political Diary:
Mainstream media outlets will be closely watching the special election tomorrow to fill the House seat of former San Diego Congressman Duke Cunningham, who has been sentenced to federal prison for bribery. Should Democrat Francine Busby defeat Republican Brian Bilbray in a heavily GOP district, it would embolden Democratic hopes of winning control of Congress.
But almost no national media outlet has covered the late-breaking news that may decide the election. Last Thursday, Ms. Busby addressed a group of supporters and in response to a question in Spanish about how someone who was an illegal alien could help, she answered: "You don’t need papers for voting," she said. "You don’t need to be a registered voter to help." Even more troubling for her is the fact that someone in the audience taped her statement and gave it to San Diego talk-show host Roger Hedgecock.
The San Diego Union-Tribune picked up on the story over the weekend, and included Ms. Busby’s strained explanation that she intended only to say that people too young to vote could still help with volunteer work in her campaign.
The incident hurts Ms. Busby because much of her campaign has been focused on her fight against corruption, especially in the sullied area of Congressional "earmarks," the pork-barrel projects that figured prominently in Rep. Cunningham’s votes-for-cash bribery scandal. Now Ms. Busby has been caught in an apparent endorsement of either vote fraud or, most charitably, encouraging illegal aliens to help in her campaign. Should she lose on Tuesday, it will be interesting to see if the national media belatedly identify her slip of the tongue as a factor in her defeat. Alternately, should she win on Tuesday, will media outlets ask any questions about possible voter irregularities, such as whether any of the thousands of newly registered voters in the district weren’t eligible?
— John Fund