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20 Meet Deadline to Run for Cox’s Seat

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Times Staff Writer

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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