ELECTIONS OXNARD MAYOR : Candidates’ Personal Attacks Eclipse Issues

With the Nov. 6 election in Oxnard drawing near, the issues raised by the mayoral candidates at the beginning of the campaign have taken a back seat to personal attacks and charges of political mudslinging.

The attacks have ranged from allegations that one candidate has never had a job to accusations that another was once a pimp.

“I think it’s a real sorry state of affairs,” Supervisor John Flynn said of the campaign.

In contrast, the campaign for two council seats has remained subdued, with the 12 candidates spending most of their energy promoting their qualifications.

The six mayoral candidates are Nao Takasugi, a retired grocer and four-term incumbent; Councilwoman Dorothy Maron; Scott Bollinger, a self-employed investor; John Cobian, a court interpreter; Deborah DeMoss, a homemaker and saleswoman; and John Soria, a semi-retired administrator.

When candidates filed nomination papers in August, the most prominent issues discussed were the pace of development, the city’s financial problems and the lack of affordable housing.

As the campaign gained speed, however, attention focused on personal attacks.

Early in the race, in an August press release, Bollinger, a strong critic of the city’s financial policies, blasted Takasugi.

The statement accused the mayor of spending all his time raising money and characterized Takasugi as a “self-appointed ambassador” for Oxnard.

Takasugi fired his own volley that month in a controversial campaign letter he distributed door-to-door to residents.

The letter said Maron has been involved in illegal secret meetings with two other council members.

“Getting the job done with the members of the City Council fighting and grandstanding to get newspaper headlines is very difficult,” the letter said. “Also the illegal backroom deals clearly made by council members must end.”

Maron, who has characterized herself as a “slow-growth” candidate, denied the allegations and accused Takasugi and his campaign consultant John Davies of political mudslinging.

At the request of Bollinger, the district attorney’s office investigated and this week concluded that there was not enough evidence to support the allegations.

Bollinger said the campaign has become heated, but accused Takasugi of initiating the personal attacks by sending out “rancid hit mail.”

“When someone comes out and throws mud into your face they are inviting you into a mud bath,” he said.

DeMoss, a political novice who has stayed clear of the fray, said the attention of the campaign has turned away from the vital issues facing the city.

“I think it’s too dirty,” she said. “It’s gotten way out of hand.”

Flynn, the county supervisor who represents Oxnard, agreed.

“We’ve had good, clean elections here in the past,” he said. “This election has dramatically changed what has happened in the past.”

Cobian, who has campaigned for more affordable housing, was the target of an attack via a news article sent anonymously to residents throughout the city.

The article, a profile of Cobian that appeared in a local newspaper in July, 1983, said Cobian was a pimp when he was a boy living in Tijuana, Mexico.

“I was the youngest pimp in TJ,” Cobian was quoted.

In an interview, Cobian dismissed the article, saying he was misquoted.

Soria, however, who cites Cobian as a longtime acquaintance, said the article was accurate. Also, he contended that Cobian had been arrested several years ago by Oxnard police.

Court records indicate that Cobian was arrested in July, 1974, on suspicion of attempting to purchase stolen merchandise. After a trial in Municipal Court, he was found guilty of trying to buy a television from an undercover police officer, according to court records.

Cobian was fined $300 and sentenced to three years’ probation, court officials said.

In an interview, Cobian said he was arrested by Oxnard police in retribution for the attention he said he brought to alleged police brutality and abuse in the department.

In October, residents received another controversial campaign mailer signed by six supporters of Takasugi, including Planning Commissioner Tony Grey, former Chamber of Commerce President Sue Chandwick and Bill Lewis, president of the Oxnard Peace Officers Assn.

The letter referred to a mayoral forum at KADY-TV earlier that month and described Takasugi’s challengers as “five adults acting like school house bullies, class whiners and name callers.”

“These five candidates for Oxnard’s highest elected office did not offer one fresh idea, not even an old idea,” the letter said. “All they did was point fingers and make outrageous statements.”

This week, a campaign mailer distributed by Takasugi’s campaign attacked Bollinger and Maron.

“At 39 years old, Scott Bollinger does not have a job,” the literature said. “As far as I can tell, he has never had a job.”

Bollinger rejected the accusation and demanded that the mayor prove his accusations.

Takasugi’s mailer accused Maron of being “part of the bickering, illegal backroom deals and high-spending City Council.”

Although Maron had promised early in the race to stay clear of such charges and countercharges, she called a press conference on Wednesday to respond.

Maron told reporters that Takasugi had violated an oath he signed in August promising to run a clean campaign, and she then contended that the mayor’s campaign was guilty of sexism.

“One of the things about mudslinging is that the person who is hit with the mud is stained but the other thing is that the person who throws it is also stained,” she said.