With 71 percent of precincts reporting, the Wildcat is projecting that Luke Walton's brother will fail in his bid to replace recalled California Governor Gray Davis.

Nathan Whitecloud Walton, brother of the former UA basketball forward, entered the California recall election along with 134 other gubernatorial candidates ÷ and although he will not come out on top, he was among the top half of the field early this morning.

As of 1 a.m., Walton, an independent, cracked the 1,000-vote tally, putting him in 47th place.

On his official campaign site, www.nate4gov.com, Walton expressed his desire to put the will of the people above partisan politics and special interest groups.

"This campaign was inspired by the need for a shake-up of the normal ways of doing politics," Walton said in the "Rant & Rave" section of his site. "I would say (the recall campaign) has been a tremendous success. People are actually demanding what they want instead of being told they might get something in return for party loyalty or special interests."

Walton also pleaded for sympathy and compassion toward illegal aliens on a local conservative talk radio show, where he said he became "fed up" with the host's lax attitude toward undocumented immigrants.

"I reminded him that they were still human beings and that we had a humanitarian obligation to aid for the ill, and to educate the youth," he said.

At 6 feet, 7 inches tall, Walton played at the forward and center positions for Princeton University from 1996-2001. He led the Tigers in points, rebounds, assists, steals and turnovers his senior season.

Walton, who majored in politics at Princeton, was critical of California Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger's intellect on his Web site.

"Arnold couldn't pass a single class at Princeton," he said.