ELECTIONS / 23RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT : Democrats at Odds Over Debates

The Democratic congressional primary in Ventura County heated up this week as Kevin Sweeney blasted opponent Anita Perez Ferguson for refusing to debate and she returned the fire, calling him “arrogant” and questioning his political ethics.

“It is inconceivable to me that someone would consider running for the U. S. Congress and not be willing to debate,” Sweeney said in a widely distributed statement. “It’s disrespectful to the voters of this district.”

Perez Ferguson denied that she is avoiding face-to-face debates. “He’s having a little political tantrum,” she said Tuesday.

Perez Ferguson said she is a strong believer in debates to attract voters, but has not agreed to 10 debates proposed by Sweeney. “I don’t want him to set an agenda for me,” she said.

The two are running in the new 23rd Congressional District that includes Carpinteria and all of Ventura County except Thousand Oaks.

Sweeney suggested the debates as part of his proposed candidate “rules of engagement”--six points that he said were designed to keep the campaign free of negativism and focused on meaningful issues.

Perez Ferguson called Sweeney’s rules “kind of arrogant. It’s a way of promoting yourself.”

She said she would show up with enthusiasm if an organization such as the League of Women Voters sponsored one or more face-to-face debates.

Kathryn Fellows of Ojai, president of the Ventura County chapter of the League of Women Voters, said Tuesday afternoon that at least two league-sponsored candidate forums are being planned in Ventura County--one in Oxnard, the other in Simi Valley. But the dates haven’t been set yet and the candidates have yet to be notified.

One of the events will be held in May at Oxnard College, said debate coordinator Merri Ann Harbert, who is in charge of student government at the school.

She said both Sweeney and Perez Ferguson will be invited along with the Republican incumbent, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), his two Republican challengers, Daphne Becker of Ojai and Robert Shakman of Ventura, and the Libertarian Party candidate, Jay C. Wood of Fillmore.

The candidates, she said, will have two minutes each to answer a general question from the debate sponsors and one minute each to field questions from the audience.

“That’s great,” said Sam Rodriquez, campaign manager for Perez Ferguson.

But Kevin Looper, Sweeney’s press manager, said two debates with so many participants will not give candidates an opportunity to expand on important issues.

“We’re running for Congress,” he said. “We’re supposed to be spending the next 49 days (before the June 2 primary) reaching out to voters.”

Sweeney, 33, a former campaign press secretary for Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colorado) during his 1988 presidential campaign, has helped several local candidates win public office on campaign platforms of environmental protection and preserving the county’s remaining open space. He has lived in Ventura for the past three years.

Perez Ferguson, 43, an education consultant, mounted an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 1990, losing to incumbent Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura). She is a resident of Santa Barbara who said she is in the process of buying a home in Oxnard.

Both candidates say they see a big opportunity to oust incumbent Republican Gallegly in the wake of congressional scandals and a dour public mood toward incumbent lawmakers.

Sweeney said he has been fuming for weeks over what he alleges is Perez Ferguson’s elusiveness on the debate issue. Sweeney produced a chronology of correspondence, logs of telephone calls and faxes to Perez Ferguson, going back to January, before he announced his candidacy, calling for candidate debates.

He said she has not responded to his debate proposals and so he decided to turn up the heat. On April 1, Sweeney said he sent a letter to Perez Ferguson’s “top 30 or 40” campaign contributors in Santa Barbara from the 1990 race.

“I hope you will give her a call and tell her that you think it extremely important that she participate in this series of 10 debates,” Sweeney wrote in the letter.

Sweeney said he got the names and addresses from Perez Ferguson’s contributors’ list filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Scott Moxley, a spokesman for the commission in Washington, said the agency, which supervises campaign contributions, permits people to use contributor lists “as long as there is no solicitation” for campaign funds.

Rodriquez of Perez Ferguson’s campaign said such tactics were “underhanded. It’s a fine line between what is not legal and what is legal. It’s definitely not ethical from a person talking about campaign reform.”

Sweeney said, however, that he has no choice but to keep putting pressure on his opponent to debate him. “If they don’t return our phone calls, what else can we do?” he said.

Nels Henderson, chairman of the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee, said he believes that it is important for Sweeney and Ferguson to debate so as to set a precedent for a debate this fall. “Then we can reasonably expect Mr. Gallegly to debate our candidate,” Henderson said.

“It’s a strategy move we should probably be taking,” he said. “I don’t think it would hurt either of them.”