What’s in store for ‘The Fabulous Fifth’ in 2010?
A Red County San Diego blogger muses in this post on County Supervisor Bill Horn’s chances of hanging onto his seat in 2010. “The Fabulous Fifth,” as Horn calls it, includes Oceanside, Camp Pendleton, Vista, San Marcos, Carlsbad and lots of back country. As the blogger points out:
North County just isn’t the Republican fortress it used to be (just ask former Escondido Councilman Ed Gallo), and the sooner the local GOP and their candidates get that through their sculls [sic] the better.
Horn’s district, which he’s overseen since 1995, is still the Republicanist of the five supervisorial districts, with registered Red voters (131,194) outnumbering registered Blue voters (86,242) by 44,952. But there are also 65,927 decline-to-staters. (Decline-to-state-voter fun fact: Only California allows such a designation.) In 2006, despite some questionable behavior, Horn beat challenger Bruce Thompson by a little more than 5,000 votes (out of roughly 96,000 votes cast). Thompson is a Republican and former state Assembly member whose top priorities in the election were curtailing development, reducing traffic and stopping illegal immigration. If none of this rings a bell, it’s because 1.) The supes get little attention; most people aren’t quite sure what they do and 2.) This was the same election that featured the Brian Billbray/Francine Busby race for Duke Cunningham’s seat.
Will anyone challenge Horn? Red County has some predictions. We’ll ask around, too, and let you know what we find out.
