Big Challenges in Board Races Absent So Far : Politics: Supervisors Flynn, Lacey and Erickson Kildee seemed vulnerable. But several factors have discouraged potential contenders.

Just three months ago, competitive races were the promise of this spring’s campaign for the powerful Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

Incumbent John K. Flynn had wounded himself by accusing colleagues of conspiring with Oxnard Mayor Nao Takasugi to defeat him in the June election.

And two other veteran supervisors, Susan K. Lacey and Maggie Erickson Kildee, had angered constituents with their positions on explosive issues--whether to build a dam on Sespe Creek and a new jail near Santa Paula.

But on the eve of Monday’s opening of the filing period, Takasugi appears ready to run for the Assembly and strong challengers have yet to emerge for any of the three supervisorial seats.

“Now suddenly they’re all looking pretty blah,” said Carolyn Leavens, who last fall vowed that a pro-business coalition would recruit candidates to oppose Flynn and Lacey. “I’ve been absolutely flabbergasted.”

Leavens was the spokeswoman for the coalition, which helped three pro-business candidates sweep the Ventura City Council races in November. At the time, she spoke of “long-term strategies” to also change the Board of Supervisors.

So far, the coalition has not become involved in recruiting any supervisorial candidates, she said last week.

“But we’re not through yet,” said Leavens, who challenged Lacey in 1988. “We’ve got another month.”

Candidates have until March 6 to file for supervisor. And political consultant John Davies, who has managed several local races, noted that Supervisor Maria VanderKolk was a political unknown recruited at the last minute when she upset Supervisor Madge L. Schaefer two years ago.

“Just like in 1990, there doesn’t look like there’s going to be a race,” Davies said. “But political folks have short memories.”

Many involved in Ventura County politics say that several factors have conspired to reduce the competition for supervisor this spring.

Once-a-decade redistricting and limits on legislative terms have lured strong local candidates such as Takasugi to campaigns for open seats in Congress and the Legislature.

Businessmen who might have run for supervisor now say the soured economy has forced them to concentrate on keeping their doors open instead.

In addition, all three incumbents began door-to-door canvassing many weeks ago and have campaign treasuries of $18,000 to $45,000.

Lacey and Erickson Kildee are seeking a fourth four-year term and Flynn wants a fifth term on the full-time board. The job pays $50,232 a year.

So far, just six challengers have announced or are actively seeking support in the three races.

Only one potential candidate--Santa Paula Councilman John A.F. Melton--has served as a public official. And Melton has said he has strong reservations about challenging Erickson Kildee, who has always drawn at least a majority of votes in every city in her district.

“I’m seeing if there really is support,” Melton said recently with a reserve that has confounded potential backers who are unhappy with Erickson Kildee’s support of a new jail on farmland near Santa Paula.

Santa Paula Councilwoman Margaret Ely said she asked Melton directly last week whether he was going to run.

“I asked him straight out, and he just grinned at me,” she said. “I don’t know why John is being so reticent.”

Of the three incumbents, Lacey has the smallest campaign treasury and began her canvassing latest--just after the Christmas holidays. But Lacey also is the only incumbent who has faced a strong opponent since 1980.

She was challenged by four opponents in the 1988 primary but won without a runoff. In that race Leavens, a rancher and prominent Republican, outspent Lacey 2 to 1 with costs of about $100,000 but lost by 12 percentage points.

Lacey, 50, mentions that campaign when explaining the lack of interest in her current race.

“There were several people running at this time four years ago,” Lacey said. “But I managed to avoid a runoff, and I think that is something a serious challenger is going to take a look at.”

Businessman Robert G. van der Valk, 50, the best known of Lacey’s three potential challengers because of his unsuccessful Ventura City Council race last fall, said he thinks Lacey is “pretty invulnerable.”

Van der Valk said he has been told repeatedly that the odds of him winning are very long unless Lacey makes a big political mistake this spring.

“They say that if Carolyn Leavens couldn’t do it (in 1988) spending all that money, then (Lacey’s) going to be very tough,” Van der Valk said. “I’ve not found anyone else out there who’s going to run.”

The major issue facing Lacey this spring is a proposed landfill at Weldon Canyon, which is between Ventura and Ojai and in her district. Of all supervisors, she has expressed the most concern about the project, a stance that appears popular with her Ojai Valley constituents.

There are two declared candidates in the Ventura-based 1st District--unemployed teacher Carroll Dean Williams, and Chad Steve Towe, a petition circulator who moved to Ventura County six months ago.

Williams, 49, made news last year by placing members of the Ventura City Council under citizen’s arrest for allegedly not following the city charter. No charges were ever contemplated, authorities said.

Williams said his 23 years of experience as a manufacturing engineer at a now-closed Ventura company that made offshore drilling equipment has given him a practical approach to business that’s missing on the Board of Supervisors.

Williams has also worked as an industrial arts instructor at Oxnard College, he said.

Towe, 22, a high school graduate from Oklahoma, said he does not know Lacey’s record but thinks the county should not seize property from owners who fail to pay their taxes.

“There’s a lot of things out there that need to be changed,” he said. He was not specific about what.

Still waiting to see whether a strong candidate steps forward is Leavens. While her coalition has made no decision on county races, she said she is watching the Lacey race closely.

“If nobody puts their hat into the ring, then we will be encouraging people to run,” she said. Leavens has said that the 1st District needs a supervisor more in tune with business than Lacey, a former special education teacher.

Lacey and Flynn angered business interests last fall by opposing a high dam on upper Sespe Creek.

And that was just one of Flynn’s problems.

Flynn, 59, also drew criticism when he refused to support a Latino voting-rights coalition’s plan that would have made his Oxnard-based district more heavily Latino.

He also accused top county administrators of unduly influencing other supervisors on redistricting issues. Then he maintained that Erickson Kildee and Supervisor Vicky Howard had conspired with Takasugi to undermine his reelection campaign.

Since late October, however, Flynn has been running hard, shaking more hands than usual and making peace with irritated county officials.

“I’m not backing away from that statement, but I’m not resurrecting it either,” Flynn said last week about the conspiracy charge.

He also insisted that it was not a political mistake to oppose the Latino coalition’s proposal, because he did it to keep as much of Oxnard in his district as possible.

“I never thought of myself as being in a hole,” he said, “because the people of Oxnard appreciate what I was doing.”

Flynn, in fact, has assumed a high profile in El Rio and Nyeland Acres areas that were added to his district against his will--forming committees to improve a variety of youth services and even calling a press conference when he put in a new stop sign.

“If we were asphalting out in El Rio right now, I would be out in front of the asphalt truck pointing out the potholes,” he said.

Flynn said he has knocked on 4,000 doors since October. And he has about $20,000 in the bank, most of it from a $10-a-plate barbecue that drew 1,000 people last fall.

Challenging Flynn are Arlene Fraser, treasurer in Takasugi’s 1990 mayoral campaign, and Scott Bollinger, a self-employed investor who lost to Takasugi two years ago.

Fraser, 45, a desktop publishing consultant, said she has raised no money and is figuring out how to wage a campaign. She would not criticize Flynn, saying she has not had time to check out complaints she has heard about him.

“This is my first time, and I think I’m probably not doing it the way most people would do it,” she said. “I’ve heard so much advice that it’s very confusing. Hopefully I’ll get the voters’ support through the silent majority.”

Fraser is the president of the women’s division of the Oxnard Chamber of Commerce and the president of the Oxnard School District Educational Foundation, a fund-raising group.

Bollinger, 40, declared his candidacy last summer and criticized Flynn publicly for his stance on redistricting. Bollinger, however, would not discuss his campaign last week, saying he may run for a different office.

Another potential challenger to Flynn is James K. Turner of Oxnard. Turner took out a petition in January that would allow him to avoid a $502 filing fee if he collects about 2,000 signatures. The political unknown did not return phone calls from The Times last week.

Erickson Kildee, 59, may be the incumbent who receives the stiffest challenge this spring because of the ongoing controversy about the county’s decision to build a jail in the agricultural greenbelt between Ventura and Santa Paula.

Erickson Kildee said she is campaigning harder than she has since her first election in 1980, knocking on doors for four months in her hometown of Camarillo and spending $22,000 over the last six months on fund-raisers and campaign preparation.

Despite the costs, she entered 1992 with $45,000 in the bank. That, by itself, should make a potential candidate think twice, Erickson Kildee said.

“I think the money shows I am concerned, and I am positioning myself for a good campaign,” she said. “It shows how hard I’m prepared to work.”

Erickson Kildee officially kicked off her campaign Feb. 1, drawing 100 people to a rally in Camarillo, then dispatching perhaps 30 people in teams to canvass neighborhoods. She said she has never enlisted help for the door-to-door work before.

Among the canvassers were about a dozen sheriff’s deputies, whose union supports construction of the new Santa Paula jail. Several top sheriff’s officials have contributed to her campaign.

Erickson Kildee said the jail issue is the most volatile she’s confronted in her 12 years in office. Indeed, her support for the jail has prompted some Santa Paula officials and residents to seek a strong candidate to oppose her.

Melton, a five-term councilman, may be that candidate. He began gathering support for a possible run last month. And he said in a recent interview that Erickson Kildee has not listened to the pleas of Santa Paulans who want to preserve the agricultural greenbelt.

“Maggie works very hard, but you have to represent people too,” Melton said.

Erickson Kildee and three other supervisors approved construction of a $54-million jail at Todd Road and the Santa Paula Freeway in 1990. But a detailed new environmental study must be approved by supervisors before construction can begin.

About 300 jail opponents showed up for a January supervisors’ hearing, prompting Erickson Kildee and two other supervisors to say they will take a long second look at the Todd Road project.

That move seems to have undercut Melton’s effort to gather support. Several jail opponents say they are encouraged by Erickson Kildee’s flexibility and hesitate to endorse Melton.

Santa Paula Councilwoman Ely, who is ready to support Melton, said she is worried that Erickson Kildee might run unopposed.

“Gosh, somebody’s got to run,” Ely said. “That’s what elections are supposed to be about--choice.”

She has been asked to run, Ely said. But, as with other potential candidates this season, she said she cannot commit to a campaign.

“I don’t have the time or resources right now,” said Ely, a county public defender. “I’m just a working stiff.”

1992 Ventura County Supervisorial Races

Contested Races: Three seats on the County Board of Supervisors are on the June 2 ballot. Boundaries of all five supervisorial districts were altered last year in a once-in-a-decade reapportionment process.

Candidate Filing: Official campaign filing begins Monday and runs through March 6. Below are announced candidates and others considering the race:

1st District Population: 130,125 Registered Voters: 68,995 The Candidates Susan K. Lacey, Ventura County Supervisor Robert G. van der Valk, Ventura Businessman Carroll Dean Williams, Ventura Unemployed teacher Chad Steven Towe, Ventura Petition circulator

A a Glance

Centered in Ventura, where 74% of registered voters live. It also includes most of the Ojai Valley and, since redistricting, the beach communities of Oxnard Shores, Mandalay Bay and Colony. Registered voters are evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.

3rd District Population: 133,638 Registered Voters: 64,640 The Candidates Maggie Erickson Kildee, Ventura County Supervisor John A. F. Melton, Santa Paula Councilman A a Glance

Sprawling district includes the northern half of the county and at least part of five cities-Ojai, Fillmore, Santa Paula, Camarillo and Thousand Oaks. More than 43% of the registered voters live in Camarillo. About 6,400 more are Republicans than Democrats.

5th District Population: 135,027 Registered Voters: 41,433 The Candidates John K. Flynn, Oxnard County Supervisor Arlene Fraser, Oxnard Desk-top publishing consultant Scott Bollinger, Oxnard self-employed investor A a Glance

Made up primarily of Oxnard but includes the unincorporated areas of El Rio and Nyeland Acres. The district is the first in the county where at least half of the voting-age residents are Latino. Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1.