SIMI VALLEY : Wright-Braly Race Costliest in County

Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) and GOP challenger Hunt Braly spent more than $672,000 in their bitter June primary election battle, making it by far the most expensive state legislative race in Ventura County, according to final campaign reports.

Both candidates wound up in debt after the June 5 election, which Wright won by a 3-2 margin, said final reports released this week.

Wright reported owing nearly $23,000. Braly owes more than $60,000.

Campaign reports said Wright, who faces only a token Democratic challenger this fall in the 37th Assembly District, spent $425,000 during the 12 months before the primary. Braly, chief aide to state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita), spent $247,000.

The race was the toughest Wright, 61, has faced since her 1980 election to the Assembly.

Braly, 35, attacked her repeatedly for trying to intervene with law enforcement authorities on behalf of her daughter Victoria, who received 28 traffic tickets over a seven-year period.

Braly said virtually all of his debt is money he personally lent his campaign.

He made the loan, he said, with “the full expectation that, if I didn’t win, I’d never see that money again.” He said that, unlike many candidates, he plans no fund-raisers to retire the debt.