Sweeney Re-Enters Race Against Gallegly : Politics: The Democrat and environmental activist decides to stay in Ventura. He will run in the new 23rd Congressional District.

Environmental activist Kevin Sweeney announced Monday that he will rejoin the race for Congress in Ventura County’s new district, reversing his earlier decision to move to Los Angeles County.

“I’m going to stay in Ventura,” said Sweeney, 33, a Democrat and former public affairs director of Ventura-based clothing manufacturer Patagonia Inc. “I’m in this race for good.”

Sweeney’s reversal came 11 days after he announced that he was pulling out of the race to move to Venice, Calif., with his girlfriend so they could live closer to her work.

“I wanted to commit more time to a great relationship with a wonderful woman,” Sweeney said. “But, she and others have encouraged me to affirm my initial instinct to make this race. That is what I’m doing.”

Sweeney plans to make light of the flip-flop on his candidacy by sponsoring a breakfast fund-raiser where he will flip flapjacks for friends and supporters.

Then, he said, he hopes that the subject of his on-again, off-again candidacy will make way for more substantive campaign issues such as protecting the environment, long-term solutions for the nation’s faltering economy and altering the role of the federal government.

Sweeney launched his candidacy Monday with a shot at Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), accusing him of “unethical tactics” in mailing 95,000 newsletters at taxpayer expense to Ventura County residents who are not in his district.

Until the end of the year, Gallegly’s congressional district covers the eastern portions of Ventura County and western Los Angeles County.

He sent newsletters to households in his district but also sent them to 95,000 households in western Ventura County. Those residents live in the new 23rd Congressional District, drawn by the Supreme Court last month, which covers Carpinteria and all of Ventura County except Thousand Oaks.

Gallegly said he has signed on as co-sponsor of a bill that would ban using congressional mailing privileges outside the lawmaker’s district. He has vowed not to do it again.

But Sweeney accused Gallegly of sending out campaign literature to win over unfamiliar voters in the new district.

“The taxpayers should not pay for campaign literature,” Sweeney said. “I think he or his campaign should pay back the taxpayers for the costs to send out the mailing.”

Gallegly said Monday: “I’m not going to get into a sparring match with someone who may or may not be my opponent. After the Democratic primary is over, I will be happy to respond to the Democratic nominee.”

Democratic voters will select their nominee in the June 2 primary.

So far, the only other announced candidate is Anita Perez Ferguson, an educational consultant who recently moved to Ventura from Santa Barbara. Ferguson said she was surprised to learn that Sweeney had decided to jump back into the race, but she had no other comment about Sweeney’s re-emergence as a primary opponent.

Ferguson has far greater name identification in Ventura County, as a result of her unsuccessful 1990 congressional campaign. She won about 45% of the vote in western portions of Ventura County.

Sweeney is untested as a candidate. However, he has a long history as a campaign strategist beginning in 1984 as an organizer for the first presidential race of Democratic Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado.

In the fall of 1989, Sweeney was a key organizer behind a slate of slow-growth candidates that swept the Ventura City Council elections. In 1990, he advised County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk in her successful campaign to unseat former County Supervisor Madge L. Schaefer.

Sweeney, who left his job at Patagonia last month, is director of Sierra Now, a consortium of environmental groups organizing to protect the Sierra from environmental degradation. He said he will leave his post as soon as he can find a replacement.

He plans to set up his campaign himself, until he can find a campaign manager, and immediately plunge into raising donations. He said he believes that he will be able to raise several hundred thousand dollars from his contacts in Ventura County and across the nation from his days on the presidential campaign trail with Hart.

He plans to set up a campaign office by March 1 and tap into a network of environmentalists and former co-workers at Patagonia. “I think I can get several hundred volunteers to go door-to-door with me, which will make a tremendous difference for me in the primary,” he said.

Nels Henderson, chairman of the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee, said he welcomed Sweeney as a candidate. “I’m not in the business of endorsing candidates, but both Anita Perez Ferguson and Kevin Sweeney have a lot to offer the voters, and either would be strong against Elton Gallegly in November.”