20 Meet Deadline to Run for Cox’s Seat

Twenty candidates beat the clock Monday by filing paperwork to run in an Oct. 4 special primary election to replace Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), who resigned this month to become chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Each candidate for the 48th District seat had to pay a $1,621 filing fee or collect enough signatures from registered voters to qualify. Should no one win a majority vote in the primary, the top vote-getters from each party will move on to a Dec. 6 special general election.

The district includes Irvine, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, Lake Forest, Newport Beach and Tustin, but there are no residency requirements to run for Congress.

The candidates included 12 Republicans, four Democrats and one each from the American Independent, Libertarian and Green parties. Two candidates weren’t affiliated with any party, including a 21st candidate who hoped to run as a write-in.

The election lured a large field for several reasons. Congressional seats don’t carry term limits, as do seats in the Legislature, which is also why open seats are a rarity.

The Republican candidates include former Assemblywoman Marilyn Brewer, a business owner from Newport Beach; state Sen. John Campbell of Irvine; dentist David R. Crouch of Corona del Mar; urban planner Alan Gamson of Irvine; Realtor and sociologist Delecia Holt of Aliso Viejo; and former Tustin Councilman John Kelly, listed as a merchant-businessman.

Other Republican candidates are lawyer/businessman Scott MacCabe of Irvine; attorney-businessman Guy E. Mailly of Irvine; Realtor-businesswoman Marsha A. Morris of Irvine; businessman Marshall Samuel Sanders of Santa Ana; businessman Edward A. Suppe of Huntington Beach; and physician-businessman Don Udall of Corona del Mar, who ran in the 2000 primary for the congressional seat held by Rep. Darrell E. Issa (R-Vista).

Brewer and Campbell have emerged as the most active candidates so far, each raising more than $500,000 from donors.

Brewer has already made a grab for the Google vote -- a plug for her endorsement by U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) appears under search results for “48th Congressional District.” Campbell has been endorsed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Democratic candidates: teacher Bea Foster of Tustin; UC Irvine business professor John Graham of Irvine, who ran three times against Cox; marketing consultant Tom Pallow of Santa Ana; and businessman-attorney Steve Young of Newport Beach.

Jim Gilchrist of Mission Viejo, who gained notoriety earlier this year with his Minuteman Project to patrol portions of the U.S.-Mexico border, is running in the American Independent Party. Realtor-businessman Bruce Cohen of Aliso Viejo will run as a Libertarian; schoolteacher Bea Tiritilli is a Green Party candidate.

The decline-to-state candidates are “technology innovator” Al Salehi of Corona del Mar and write-in hopeful D. Bruce Smith of Seal Beach. Smith, until this month a Republican, is running as a write-in because candidates must have been registered in a party or as “decline to state” for a year before running under that designation.

Registrar officials were still verifying paperwork late Monday for Gamson, Holt and Salehi but hoped to certify them today.