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Calif. Dem Francine Busby: Illegals Can Vote

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California Democratic congressional candidate Francine Busby was caught on tape Thursday night exhorting illegal aliens in Escondido to vote for her in the race to fill the seat vacated by Randy "Duke” Cunningham, who was convicted last year of taking bribes.

Busby was speaking to a group of about 50 people gathered at the city's Jocelyn Senior Center.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, many in the audience were Latinos who couldn't speak English. Toward the end of the meeting, a man asked in Spanish: "I want to help, but I don't have papers.”

The Tribune reports:

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  "It was translated and Busby replied: 'Everybody can help, yeah, absolutely, you can all help. You don't need papers for voting, you don't need to be a registered voter to help.'”

The explosive recording, which was given prominent play Friday on Roger Hedgecock's San Diego radio show, is said to have "jolted" Busby's campaign - in a race that Democrats had been hailing as a harbinger of party-wide victory in November.

Busby's GOP opponent, Brian Bilbray, immediately seized on her remarks:

"She's soliciting illegal aliens to campaign for her and it's on tape – this isn't exactly what you call the pinnacle of ethical campaign strategy," he told the Tribune. "I don't know how she shows her face."

For her part Busby insists that she misspoke - and didn't mean to suggest that illegal aliens should vote.

"I was clarifying the question that was being asked in Spanish and then stated that you do not have to be a registered voter to help the campaign because there were many people who appeared to be to be under 18 in the group who wanted to volunteer," she explained.

"I'm not surprised that the Republican Party is making this last-minute, desperate ploy and it is absolutely false," Busby complained.

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