Let the voting begin

Early voting in the 48th Congressional District special election

begins Sunday at several Orange County synagogues and Monday at other

locations, but Newport Beach voters will have to cast their early

ballots outside city limits.

Temple Bat Yahm was to be the city’s only early voting site, but

the synagogue wasn’t able to provide a room and canceled its

involvement, Orange County Deputy Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley

said this week. He added that the Jewish Federation of Orange County

facility will offer early voting and, although in Irvine, is about

five minutes from Newport.

The Registrar of Voter’s office has hosted early voting since

Sept. 12, but the turnout has been light with only about 25 or 30

voters last week, Kelley said. Absentee ballots, however, have been

pouring in, with about 13,000 returned to far.

For information on early voting sites for the 48th Congressional

District special primary, visit the Orange County Registrar of Voters

website, o7www.oc.ca.gov/electionf7.

Photo spawns an ‘endorsement’ flap

Is a picture worth a Congressional endorsement? Former Rep. Robert

Badham thinks it might look that way. That’s why he wrote a letter

earlier this month to former Assemblywoman Marilyn Brewer, ripping

her for using a picture of former Rep. Chris Cox on a campaign flier.

Brewer is running for the 48th District Congressional seat that

Cox held for nearly 17 years after Badham retired from it. Badham’s

letter called it “a gross impropriety” to use Cox’s picture on the

flier, “apparently implying endorsement.”

But Brewer said it’s normal to use such pictures on campaign

materials. The flier says nothing about an endorsement, and her

leading GOP opponent, John Campbell, used a picture of himself with

Cox on brochures, she said.

The picture was taken in July, and “Chris Cox is savvy enough to

know that that’s exactly how that was going to be used,” Brewer said.

Forum draws similar views from candidates

In recent days, most candidates for Cox’s 48th Congressional

District seat have been shuttling around to public forums, hoping for

a captive audience of voters to hear about their views.

The forum action kicked off Friday with the Irvine Chamber of

Commerce’s event, featuring 13 of the 17 candidates who will appear

on the ballot.

They represented four different political parties, but several

candidates expressed similarly alarmist outlooks on the state of

America. Here are a few comments in response to a question about the

candidates’ top goal for their first year in Congress:

Republican David Crouch: Secure the borders, because “We’re being

invaded right now.”

Republican Guy Mailley: Work with other representatives to fight

terrorism. “We’re in a war right now, and we must be very serious

about it.... We must win it. If we don’t win it, we will lose

everything we have.”

Republican Don Udall saw a threat from another quarter entirely --

lawyers: “We have an onslaught, almost an attack in this country by

the legal system.... We have way too many lawsuits in this country

and way too many lawyers.”

An informal exit poll conducted by the chamber showed Brewer as

the leading candidate with 21 votes out of 76 ballots. Republican

state Sen. John Campbell, who didn’t attend the event, and

Libertarian candidate Bruce Cohen received 13 votes apiece, and

Democrat Steve Young came in fourth with 10 votes.

Gilchrist takes shot at Campbell

And the campaign rhetoric keeps on flying. Tuesday, American

Independent Party congressional candidate Jim Gilchrist’s campaign

sent out a press release accusing Campbell supporters of threatening

to expel from the GOP any Republicans who help Gilchrist.

In the statement, Gilchrist said Republicans fear his candidacy

because he’s treating illegal immigration as a more serious problem.

Campbell dismissed the incident, which he said occurred when

people staffing a Minuteman Project booth at the state GOP convention

displayed a Gilchrist campaign sign. The convention was last weekend

in Anaheim.

“At our events, you can advocate a position on a measure or an

issue, but you can’t advocate for a non-Republican [candidate] in the

middle of a Republican convention,” Campbell said.

He added that one of the convention staffers who said the sign had

to come down is also working on his campaign.

Costa Mesa resident appointed to state post

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Costa Mesa resident

Jonathan Harris, 35, as an administrative assistant to state Board of

Equalization vice chairman Claude Parrish.

Harris, a Republican, will earn $63,480 in his new post. His last

position was campaign field director for the Michigan Republican

Senate Campaign Committee.