Special US House election tops voting in 8 states

WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) A hard-fought U.S. House election in California that could signal voters' moods heading into November's midterm elections will be the most closely watched contest on Tuesday when eight states hold primaries.

On the busiest day of voting so far this year, Montana Democrats choose a challenger to embattled Republican Sen.

Conrad Burns, California Democrats pick a rival for Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and both parties choose a nominee for governor in Alabama.

Iowa, New Jersey, Mississippi, New Mexico and South Dakota also hold primaries to select candidates for the November elections, when all 435 House seats, as well as 33 Senate seats and 36 governorships, will be up for grabs.

National political strategists will keep their eyes focused on the special House of Representatives election in California to replace former congressman Randy Cunningham, who is now serving prison time for taking bribes.

Democrat Francine Busby lost badly to Cunningham in 2004 in the conservative district north of San Diego, but with congressional Republicans and President George W. Bush slumping in the national polls she is running even with her Republican opponent, former congressman Brian Bilbray.

A Busby win just five months before voters decide control of Congress would rattle Republicans and give a huge boost to Democrats, who must pick up 15 seats to reclaim a majority in the House.

''This is a Republican district, and if the Republicans can't hold this seat it would be a bad sign for them for November,'' said John Pitney, a political science professor at California's Claremont-McKenna College.

Both parties have poured money into what has become a rough campaign. Bilbray has painted Busby as soft on illegal immigration, while Busby has portrayed Bilbray as part of the same Republican culture that led to the Cunningham scandals.

The winner of the special election serves only to the end of Cunningham's term and must run again in November.

California voters also will choose either state Treasurer Phil Angelides or state Controller Steve Westly to challenge Schwarzenegger in November. Both candidates have spent tens of millions of dollars in a bruising Democratic primary campaign for the right to take on the former action movie star.

REUTERS SK PC1928