Campbell comes in first in House ballot

State Sen. John Campbell captured by far the most votes in Tuesday’s

special primary for the 48th Congressional District seat, but he fell

just short of locking up the seat vacated by former Rep. Chris Cox

roughly two months ago.

Campbell earned 46% of the votes cast, a little more than four

points shy of the 50%-plus-one that he needed to win the House seat

outright, according to final unofficial results from the Orange

County Registrar of Voters.

He now will face four other candidates in a general election on

Dec. 6. They are American Independent Party candidate Jim Gilchrist,

who won 14.4% of the votes cast; Democrat Steve Young, who received

8.9% of votes; and Libertarian Bruce Cohen and Green Party candidate

Bea Tiritilli, who each earned less than 1% of the vote.

Of the 402,006 registered voters in the district, 80,361 people --

or 20% -- cast ballots.

Campbell is looking toward the general election, and he said he’s

not worried as long as everyone who voted for him this time stays

loyal.

“I literally don’t even need to get a single vote other than what

I got tonight, but I will try,” Campbell said.

Some expected Campbell’s biggest challenge within the GOP to come

from Marilyn Brewer, who defined herself as a moderate and stressed

her support for abortion rights, but she closed the race with just

16.7% of the vote.

The role of moderate is now Young’s. At his election night party,

he said he expects his support for the middle class, and particularly

for women’s rights, to carry him through the next two months.

“I think, as the only pro-choice candidate after today, it will be

interesting to see how women in the district choose who to represent

them,” he said.

Young expressed optimism in a short speech to his supporters.

“I have every confidence that we’re going to keep going, and we’re

going to surprise everybody because we’re going to pull this off,” he

said.

After the polls announced a gain in absentee ballots, Gilchrist --

who founded the Minuteman Project, a volunteer group that patrols the

U.S.-Mexico border -- quoted American revolutionary John Paul Jones.

“I have one compelling comment to make: I have not yet begun to

fight,” Gilchrist said, adding that he believes he had a solid base

among conservatives.

“I’m a Reagan Republican coming in under an independent party,” he

explained. “If you liked Ronald Reagan, you’ll like me.”

Although Gilchrist listed cutting taxes, funding schools and

hospitals and caring for the elderly as major goals, the dominant

issue of his campaign has been controlling illegal immigration. He

said that if elected to the House, he would seek to increase the

budget of the U.S. Border Patrol five times over.