Washingon's Roach Invasion

Conservative Republican Eric Roach is in Washington meeting with conservative leaders in an attempt to determine the depth of their support for him in a June primary run against the 50^th District’s Republican Party candidate, lobbyist Brian Bilbray.

On Tuesday, Roach arrived in Washington for two days of meetings with national conservative groups to measure their views on his possible candidacy for the Republican nomination in the June primary, a Roach spokesman said Tuesday.

"He's getting a pulse," spokesman Stan Devereux said in a Tuesday phone interview from the nation's capital. "Eric is in the process of evaluating whether he will continue to campaign for the June primary. We believe it's very important to have input from key conservatives."

Roach lost to Bilbray in April’s special election by 1,000 votes, but the conservative vote was spilt between Roach and two other well known conservative candidates, Howard Kaloogian and Bill Morrow.

Roach has been getting substantial encouragement from Republican conservatives to run against Bilbray in the June primary. If Roach were to win that primary, he would be the Republican candidate in November and Bilbray, win or lose in June, would be out.