You don't need papers for voting...if you're voting for me

Uh. Der. Oops. I done went and mispoken. 

"You don't need papers for voting." 

On Thursday night, Francine Busby, the Democratic candidate for the 50th Congressional District, was speaking before a largely Latino crowd in Escondido when she uttered those words. She said yesterday she simply misspoke.

Or better yet, didn't know she was being recorded.

Busby, a Cardiff school board member, is in a tight race with Republican Brian Bilbray, a congressman-turned-lobbyist, who has based his campaign on a tough anti-illegal-immigration stance.

Busby has focused her campaign on ethics reform.

Busby said she was invited to the forum at the Jocelyn Senior Center in Escondido by the leader of a local soccer league. Many of the 50 or so people there were Spanish speakers. Toward the end, a man in the audience asked in Spanish: “I want to help, but I don't have papers.”

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.”

Busby said that Republicans are now twisting her words. She does not in any way support or advocate that illegal immigrants vote, she said.

Unless they vote for her, that is.

Nobody's twisting her words. They're just quoting them.