The 50th Congressional District in California represents a part of north coastal San Diego County. Its seat in the United States House of Representatives has been represented by Brian Bilbray since June 13 2006.

History

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44th District

In the 1980s, was one of four that divided San Diego, California. The district had been held for eight years by Democrat Jim Bates and was considered the most Democratic district in the San Diego area. However, Bates became bogged down in a scandal involving charges of sexual harassment. Randy "Duke" Cunningham won the Republican nomination and hammered Bates about the scandal. Cunningham won by just a point, meaning that the San Diego area was represented entirely by Republicans for only the second time since the city was split into three districts after the 1960 census. After winning, Cunningham changed his official residence from his Del Mar home to a condo in Mission Valley, San Diego, as he was required to reside in his district.

41st District

In the 1980s, was another of four that divided San Diego, California. The North San Diego County district had been held for twelve years by Republican Bill Lowery and was considered the most Republican district in the San Diego area. The District was renumbered as after the 1990 census. In 1992 Cunningham campaigned against Lowery in Lowery's district in the Republican primary. The new 51st District was much more conservative than Cunningham's more urban, old 41st District further south. Lowery, who was tainted by the House check kiting scandal, lost the primary to Cunningham, who billed himself as honest, with his campaign theme of "A Congressman We Can Be Proud Of". Cunningham changed his official residence back to his Del Mar home in the old 41st/new 51st District after winning.

2000s

In the 2000 census, the 51st District was renumbered the . The district was gerrymandered to exclude the relatively liberal areas of La Jolla, Bird Rock, downtown La Jolla, and UCSD. Those areas were moved to the more-liberal , and the more conservative community of Clairemont Mesa was added to the new 50th District.

Representatives

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The 50th District was created in 2003.

Representative	Party	Years
Randy "Duke" Cunningham	Republican	January 3, 2003 – November 28, 2005
Vacant		November 28, 2005 – June 13, 2006
Brian Bilbray	Republican	June 13 2006 – present

Special election, 2006

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Representative Cunningham resigned on November 28, 2005 in a bribery/prostitution scandal.

An open special election was held on April 11, 2006. The top vote getter was Democrat Francine Busby, who won 44% of the vote. The second place finisher was Republican Brian Bilbray, who won 15% of the vote. Paul King was the top Libertarian party vote getter, with 0.6% of the vote. Since no candidate received a simple majority, the top vote-getters in each party were competed in a runoff or special general election on June 6, 2006 (the same day as the statewide California primary). Bilbray won the special election and was sworn in on June 13.

Election results

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2006

2004

References in popular culture

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On November 29 2005, Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report declared on his show that the 50th Congressional District was "dead" to him after its insufficient support of his "friend" Cunningham. The district was placed on the show's ever-changing "Dead to Me" board. Colbert now considers there to be 433 congressional districts in the United States. There became 433 when he retired the 22nd District of Texas and sent it up to the rafters. On March 1st, 2006, he "downgraded" its status from "dead to me" to "never existed to me."List of The Colbert Report episodes, episodes 122 and 226

Reference

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