Lacey Facing Lively Race; 2 Supervisors Unopposed

A lively race is shaping up for the seat of incumbent Ventura County Supervisor Susan K. Lacey, but two other supervisors are running unopposed.

John K. Flynn, who represents Oxnard, faces no challenger. Neither does Maggie Erickson, who represents Camarillo, Las Posas, Fillmore, Santa Paula, Piru, Lockwood Valley, the Rincon area, North Newbury Park and the eastern part of Ojai. Both are seeking their third terms.

Lacey, 47, who also is seeking her third term, has already exchanged testy salvos with her strongest opponent, 57-year-old Carolyn D. Leavens. The candidates are battling for the 1st District, which includes Ventura, the Saticoy-El Rio area and most of the Ojai Valley.

The three other candidates challenging Lacy are Robert W. McKay, who describes himself as a “writer/consultant/lecturer”; businessman Gary L. Wean and real estate agent Herschel M. Johnson Jr.

Leavens has hired the Santa Barbara political consulting firm John Davies Advertising and has been endorsed by state Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), whom she calls an old family friend.

McClintock tagged Leavens to represent the 36th Assembly District in the California “Woman of the Year Celebration,” describing her as “a dynamic and energetic force in the business world and community organizations.”

Leavens, a former state president of California Women for Agriculture, grows citrus and avocados with her husband, a fourth-generation rancher. She says she is running because “there’s nobody from the business or agricultural community on the board” and because, she claims, Lacey has failed to adequately address county issues.

In a letter on March 3, Leavens challenged Lacey to a series of five debates that would address traffic, crime, pollution, preservation of agricultural lands and the county dumps.

“I have been unable to find any strong positions you have taken on the important issues facing Ventura County,” she wrote.

“Should we establish a large mass transit system, build more freeway lanes, urge employers to begin flextime schedules, or have you offered other solutions to these problems?” Leavens asked.

“There is little in your record or your campaign literature” that would offer voters a clear picture of Lacey’s stands, the letter stated.

Six days later, Lacey shot back a letter that called Leavens’ demand “presumptuous” because it would freeze out other potential candidates from the public forum.

Lacey also criticized her challenger, who stresses her expertise on agricultural issues, for her failure to testify at a series of hearings that preceded the county’s adoption of the landmark Agricultural Lands Protection Program, which is credited with preserving much of Ventura County’s farmland.

Lacey strongly denied her challenger’s suggestion that she had not been active in devising solutions to transportation problems. “Aside from my role in the critical $21-million Highway 118-Saticoy bridge improvement project, which will begin next year, I have prepared for the entire Board of Supervisors a Transportation Systems Management report which is exemplary and which addresses the very kinds of issues you purport to be concerned with.”

Lacey particularly objected to Leavens’s assertion that she has failed to take discernible stands on vital issues.

“Your letter states that there is little in my record to give the voters answers to questions,” Lacey wrote. “I have held public office for almost 15 years. My thousands of votes on a wide variety of issues are all a matter of public record. To the best of my knowledge you have never cast an open vote on a public issue and you have no record at all.

“To be told that my comprehensive record fails to answer questions, by a person with no record, is a lot like being called ugly by a frog,” Lacey concluded.

Leavens retorted that she has adopted a frog as her mascot.

“I’ve been more active on a national level in agriculture than on a local level, so it’s perfectly reasonable that you wouldn’t have any votes from me,” she said.

The primary election is June 7.