Did you know that there is a real live Republican running against Dianne Feinstein in California? Yes. It is true. Her name is Elizabeth Emken:

With members of Congress across the country battling anti-incumbent fever, California’s three-term U.S. senator, Dianne Feinstein, would seem to be a natural target in her re-election bid.

Challenger Elizabeth Emken has presented herself as a fresh face with a commitment to reform, but she has been unable to overcome the flagging popularity of the California Republican Party and her own lack of political experience to mount a credible challenge.

[...]

Emken, an autism activist whose only previous campaign experience consists of finishing last among four Republicans in a 2010 congressional primary, beat 23 other little-known candidates in the June primary for a chance to challenge the popular Democratic senator.

The former IBM middle manager picked up 12.5 percent of the vote– twice as much as her closest competitor– but has since struggled to gain recognition and raise money.

A Field Poll conducted in mid-September showed Feinstein leading Emken 57 percent to 31 percent among likely voters and even picking up support from 18 percent of Republicans.

Bill Carrick, Feinstein’s campaign consultant, characterized Emken as “the least qualified candidate” he has seen run against the senator. Feinstein herself said it can be nearly impossible for an unknown to run for statewide office in California because of its size and diversity.

“People think you can just jump into one of these races,” she said. “It is very difficult to do; you have to build a base over time.”

Emken had raised about $200,000 at the time of the most recent Federal Election Commission filings, while Feinstein had gathered nearly $8 million, despite being one of many Democratic candidates and officeholders victimized in an embezzlement scandal involving a former campaign treasurer.

So how did Emken get that whopping 12.5% of that vote to become the Republican standard bearer? She employed a mailing house to include her on a conservative slate mailer (suck it, Orly Taitz!) that went out to 5.5 million Californians and, after picking up 604,910 votes, it was “Sweet! Beltway here I come…”.

Sadly/hilariously, that is not how it is turning out:

A conservative slate mailing company is suing Republican U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Emken for fraud and breach of contract.

Emken is the GOP standard-bearer this fall against Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

The suit, filed by Irvine-based Landslide Communications, which sends out millions of pieces of political mail, mostly aimed at conservative voters every year, alleges that Emken improperly repaid a personal loan she made to her campaign before paying the mailing house the $65,000 they say she owes them.

The mailing house says they sent out more than 5.5 million pieces of mail touting Emken’s candidacy, but were only paid $45,000 of the $110,000 Emken’s campaign agreed to pay.

Remember that $200,000 that she had on hand? Yeah. Funny thing about that. According to the Landslide Communications lawsuit, Emken loaned her campaign $200,000 on March 24th and proceeded to flash her roll to vendors to show them that she had the ability to pay and it was full speed ahead. But then she repaid herself that $200,000 three weeks later on April 18th and didn’t notify anyone until May 29th, just a week before the election.

Psych!

Now she’s got no money no money no money because nobody is going donate to a campaign that looks worse than Todd Akins which means that Elizabeth Emken is like a low rent Sarah Palin, if that is possible.

The end.