Supervisors Face Stiff Competition in County’s Spring Primary

With the new year’s celebration over, candidates vying for three Ventura County supervisorial seats will be scrambling to jump-start their campaigns in what promises to be among the most competitive local races in this short primary election season.

Dogged by the county’s financial and organizational problems, incumbent Supervisors John Flynn and Kathy Long face serious challenges in the March 7 election. Three candidates are competing for a third seat being vacated by Supervisor Susan Lacey, who is retiring after 20 years in office.

County voters will also cast ballots for three state Assembly seats, one Senate post and two congressional races in the spring primary--the earliest in modern California history.

“It creeps up on people,” Bruce Bradley, county elections chief, said of the March primary. “Before they realize it they’re going to be getting the sample ballots and saying, ‘Is it time already?’ ”

Voter turnout is generally higher during presidential election years. Moreover, since 1998 a change in election law allows for an “open primary,” meaning voters can cast ballots for any candidate, regardless of party affiliation.

The three supervisorial elections are expected to deliver the most spirited debates, coming on the heels of the abrupt resignation of former county manager David Baker and an embarrassing federal Medicare billing probe that resulted in $15.3 million in fines and a county budget deficit.

“I think these have huge potential for excitement,” said John Davies, a political consultant who has worked on many local campaigns. “But it’s all up to the challengers to put something together to make it into a contest.”

Seizing the moment, activist Francisco Dominguez decided last month the time was right for a Latino candidate to challenge Flynn, who has presided over his Oxnard-based and primarily Latino district for more than 20 years. Oxnard activist Arlene Fraser is waging her third challenge against Flynn.

Dominguez and his supporters concede it will be tough to beat an entrenched supervisor, especially one who is popular among Latino voters. Dominguez will have to mount an aggressive registration drive if he hopes to boost voter turnout among Latinos, which has traditionally lagged behind white voters.

“The impact of the Latino vote is still a wild card,” said Hank Lacayo, chairman of the Ventura County Democratic Committee and a Flynn supporter. “If the numbers of Latinos in the county would correspond to the number of actual voters, they’d be a very potent force.”

Meanwhile, Long, a first-term incumbent, faces a challenge from Camarillo City Councilman Michael D. Morgan and financial consultant Jim Shinn.

Long’s district is the most economically and socially diverse, stretching from suburban Camarillo to the agriculturally rich Santa Rosa Valley, which includes Fillmore and Santa Paula.

Morgan, who lost a 1996 supervisorial bid to Long, has attacked Long for her support of a botched merger last year of the county’s mental health and social service agencies, a move that sparked several state and federal audits that left the county in financial trouble.

In the third supervisorial race, voters will be asked to choose between Steve Bennett, chief architect of the successful SOAR growth-control measures, and Ventura City Councilman Jim Monahan and former City Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures, both of whom opposed SOAR and are tied closely with the business community. In addition to the city of Ventura, Lacey’s district encompasses much of the Ojai Valley and most of the Oxnard beach areas.

Here is a look at local congressional and state races:

* 23rd Congressional District: U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), who made national headlines last year with his legislation banning the sale of pornographic animal-crushing videos, is expected to face attorney and Democrat Michael Case in the November election. Gallegly is unopposed in the March primary.

First, Case must overcome a Democratic challenge from real estate broker Albert Maxwell Goldberg. Other candidates are physician, author and Reform Party candidate Cary Savitch, businessman and Natural Law Party candidate Stephen P. Hospodar, and electrical engineer and Libertarian Roger Peebles. The 23rd District encompasses all of Ventura County, except for portions of the Conejo Valley.

* 24th Congressional District: U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Woodland Hills), whose district includes Thousand Oaks, is unopposed in the Democratic primary. Other candidates are Republican actor Jerry Doyle, unchallenged in the GOP primary; Libertarian Juan Carlos Ros and Natural Law candidate Michael Cuddehe. The district stretches from the Conejo Valley to Malibu and portions of the western San Fernando Valley.

* 35th Assembly District: Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), a lawyer who has made her name as an environmental lawmaker, faces a primary challenge from Ventura teacher David Norrdin. Santa Paula Councilwoman Robin Sullivan, a Republican and an escrow lawyer who is locally aligned with the business community, will run in the general election. Natural Law Party candidate Eric Dahl also has qualified to run. The district includes most of western Ventura County, including Ventura, Santa Paula and Ojai.

* 37th Assembly District: Assemblyman Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) faces a challenge from Democrat Roz McGrath, who lost narrowly to Strickland in 1998. Strickland is unopposed in the GOP primary. McGrath faces Port Hueneme Councilman Jon Sharkey in the Democratic primary. Libertarian candidate Willard Michlin also is running. The district includes Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Camarillo and Oxnard.

* 38th Assembly District: Incumbent Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) faces term limits and is vacating his seat to run for the state Senate. In the race to fill the open seat, Simi Valley school trustee Norm Walker will duel it out in the GOP primary with Dr. Keith Richman and businessman Ross Hopkins. Democrat Jon Lauritzen and Libertarian Philip Baron also have qualified to run. The district includes Fillmore, Simi Valley and portions of the San Fernando Valley.

* 19th state Senate District: The seat is being vacated by retiring Simi Valley Republican Cathie Wright. McClintock faces Ventura County Supervisor Judy Mikels in the GOP primary. Democratic candidate Daniel Gonzalez is unopposed in the primary. The district includes Simi Valley, Moorpark, Thousand Oaks, Fillmore, Camarillo and Oxnard.

Voters casting ballots in the March primary also will be asked to consider at least 21 initiatives aimed at reshaping California’s Constitution. Some, such as Proposition 22, which would constitutionally bar gay marriage, are ideological in nature and should affect residents in Ventura no more or less than residents in Valencia or Valpico.

Other initiatives, such as Propositions 12 and 13, which collectively bond more than $4 billion to improve drinking water and air quality and purchase park land, could have specific impacts on Ventura County involving the environment and the potential cost of maintaining any land purchased or programs initiated.

Also of interest to county residents may be Proposition 28, a move to repeal the 50-cent per-pack tax on cigarettes passed in 1998 by a slim majority of voters. The tax is expected to bring Ventura County $12 million this year.

Meanwhile, Proposition 26 would allow counties to raise property taxes to pay for school bonds with only a simple majority of voter approval, rather than the two-thirds approval now required.

Ventura County Republican Committee Chairman Paul Leavens is most interested in an initiative that may not make it onto this year’s ballot--despite a last-minute push to resuscitate it after the California Supreme Court took issue with the way it was to be packaged.

That initiative would transfer the power to draw new legislative districts from the Democratic-controlled Legislature to the state Supreme Court.

“The Democrats are going to kill us if they have a chance at redistricting,” Leavens said. “They gerrymander [to help elect Democrats].”

In November’s general election, voters countywide will cast ballots in council races in nine cities and a host of school board, community college and other special district elections.

On the often-fractured Thousand Oaks City Council, the seats held by Michael Markey and Linda Parks will be up for election.

Growth and development could play a role in elections in Santa Paula, where some leaders have been pushing for a major land annexation that would more than double the geographical size of the city.

Incumbents and social activists also will be awaiting the outcome of a Department of Justice investigation into Latino voting rights, and whether the attention generated by the investigation encourages more Latino candidates.

The council seats up this year are held by Jim Garfield and Sullivan, the Republican candidate running for Jackson’s seat in the Assembly. Neither Garfield nor Sullivan is Latino. The council has only one Latino member, though the city’s residents are predominantly Latino.

The Justice Department probe began in 1998, and could culminate in a lawsuit in which the federal government would attempt to force the city to draw single-member voting districts that could favor more Latino representation. The city already has spent an estimated $60,000 in legal fees fighting the federal government.