ELECTIONS : SUPERVISORS : VanderKolk Ahead of Schaefer in Count

Slow-growth advocate Maria VanderKolk, a 25-year-old political newcomer, led Supervisor Madge L. Schaefer by 112 votes Wednesday in a race that may result in the most stunning upset in a Ventura County campaign in decades.

While political observers described the close race as a resounding vote against urban sprawl in eastern Ventura County, Schaefer dropped out of sight to await the final counting Friday of an estimated 1,250 absentee and questionable ballots from the 2nd District.

Schaefer, who now trails 11,174 to 11,286, must get about 54% of the remaining ballots to win a second term on the powerful county board. The full-time job pays $47,844 a year.

After a sleepless election night, VanderKolk said Wednesday morning that her strong showing demonstrates “that a grass-roots environmental movement can have power.”

“I don’t think anybody anticipated this, so it makes it all the more exciting,” said VanderKolk, a product-licensing firm manager who moved to Thousand Oaks just 21 months ago.

VanderKolk filed for the south-county 2nd District seat almost by default. When likely opponents failed to step forward, a local environmental group, Save Open Space, asked her to run on the eve of the March 9 filing deadline.

Schaefer, who waged her campaign as a sure thing and spent only about half of the $40,000 in her treasury, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

“Supervisor Schaefer will have no comment until the last of the absentee ballots are counted,” a statement released by her office said. Among the about 1,250 ballots to be counted are 125 that were cast by voters whose addresses did not match county records.

At an election-night party, Schaefer blamed her unexpected poor showing on her lack of campaigning and on VanderKolk, who the incumbent said had distorted her moderate voting record on growth issues that came before supervisors.

In particular, Schaefer said VanderKolk misled voters in a flyer encouraging them to “oust politicians who are beholden to developers.” The flyer pictured Schaefer and billionaire developer David H. Murdock at a charity ball and said the incumbent had received tens of thousands of dollars from development interests.

“It makes me sad that she had to resort to those tactics. You would hope young people would have loftier goals,” said Schaefer, 48, who in interviews has repeatedly referred to her opponent’s age and inexperience.

“I should have campaigned harder,” Schaefer added. “So much of my time was used on county business.”

Schaefer spent most of the week before the election in New York City, representing the county in meetings with Wall Street companies that rate county bonds.

VanderKolk--along with Thousand Oaks and county officials--attributed the challenger’s effectiveness to a variety of factors: Schaefer’s halfhearted campaign and fiery personality, VanderKolk’s core of about 20 volunteers who canvassed door-to-door for weeks and, most importantly, the rise of a local movement to preserve open space by checking urban sprawl.

Indeed, late returns that pushed VanderKolk ahead of Schaefer came from six precincts in Oak Park, an east-county community next to Jordan Ranch, whose proposed development was a key issue in the campaign.

Oak Park favored VanderKolk by a margin of almost 2 to 1, casting 820 votes for her and 473 for Schaefer.

“Jordan Ranch gave us a compelling issue,” VanderKolk said. “A lot of people who live in my district drive by Jordan Ranch every day, and it means a lot to them to be able to leave work in the San Fernando Valley and see that open space on their way home.”

Developers have proposed construction of 750 homes and a golf course at entertainer Bob Hope’s Jordan Ranch.

VanderKolk has opposed a land swap that would make the subdivision possible. Schaefer has favored the deal because it would turn over 5,700 acres of parkland to state and federal agencies and would leave the ultimate decision on the development with the Board of Supervisors.

A VanderKolk victory might have its most obvious effect on the Jordan Ranch development and an even larger project planned for the Ahmanson Ranch next to it on the Los Angeles County line.

Two county supervisors, Susan K. Lacey and Maggie Erickson, have said that they have great concerns about both projects and that VanderKolk might become a third negative vote on the five-member board.

Supervisor John K. Flynn said a VanderKolk win would “throw a whole bunch of issues up in the air.”

For example, Flynn said, emphasis on preserving open space might make his argument for building a new jail next to the old one at the county government center in Ventura more persuasive.

“I think my colleagues might read this result and know that if they proceed to stick a jail out in a greenbelt, it will be folly,” Flynn said.

Although protecting the environment was the central theme for VanderKolk, the challenger said her campaign might never have gained momentum if it had not been for the mid-May endorsement of Patagonia Inc., a Ventura-based clothing company that also supported three successful slow-growth candidates in last fall’s Ventura City Council election.

“It definitely was Patagonia that gave us a lot of credibility and media coverage that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise,” she said.

Kevin Sweeney, public affairs director for Patagonia, said Wednesday that the company endorsed two candidates this spring, VanderKolk and Glen Schmidt. Schmidt ran third in a five-candidate 4th District race for supervisor.

“Schmidt didn’t do well at all but Maria did, and that says something about her skills as a candidate,” he said. “If it was our help that did it for her, why didn’t it help Glen Schmidt?”

Both Sweeney and VanderKolk said they thought that the outspoken Schaefer may have harmed her reelection bid by describing the challenger as her “little friend” who was serving as “a pawn” of Patagonia.

“Some people like Madge’s acerbic approach,” VanderKolk said, “but it undoubtedly turned some people off.”

Several prominent Thousand Oaks officials said they see the virtual dead heat as a repudiation of Schaefer instead of an endorsement of VanderKolk.

Thousand Oaks Mayor Alex Fiore, a nemesis of Schaefer’s during her eight years on the City Council there, said: “I think that there is a subtle message there for Madge. She has to re-evaluate growth and her position on delivering something to Thousand Oaks.”

Fiore said that since her election in 1986, Schaefer frequently has battled city officials on behalf of the county and has brought few new county services to her hometown.

Fiore said that Schaefer’s outspoken style also has turned former supporters against her. A prominent civic leader, who insisted on anonymity, agreed.

“She’s an arrogant lady, and people don’t like arrogance,” he said.

Even some Schaefer supporters said her style may have hurt her Tuesday. For example, Rorie Skei, a leading area environmentalist, said:

“Madge has a long history in Thousand Oaks and has made a lot of enemies because of her forthright style. It would not surprise me if people voted for Maria because they wanted to teach Madge a lesson. But it’s going to backfire unless Maria VanderKolk is a quick study.”

Skei said she thought VanderKolk’s campaign played on voters’ fears because it “painted Madge as someone who rides on a bulldozer. I found that she is acutely aware and sensitive to environmental issues.”

Among both friends and enemies, reaction to the Schaefer-VanderKolk vote was unanimously one of surprise.

“In Ventura County politics, this is the biggest upset I’ve ever seen,” said veteran Public Defender Kenneth Clayman. “It sends a message out: No growth, no growth.”

Flynn said he had seen nothing like it since he first ran for public office in 1972 and won an extremely narrow victory over 5th District incumbent Ted Laubacher, who had taken him lightly. A determined Laubacher retaliated by defeating Flynn four years later.

A veteran county official who has tracked supervisorial races since 1950 said the VanderKolk showing is even more surprising than Flynn’s 1972 win because Flynn was born in Ventura County and was well-known for his work on other political campaigns.

“I think I’m pretty slick, and I understand the political scene in this county,” the official said. “But this one floors me.”