ELECTIONS STATE SENATE DISTRICT 19 : GOP Candidates Find They Agree on a Few Issues During Debate

Although their political acrimony has escalated in recent weeks, three Republicans competing for Ventura County’s open state Senate seat engaged in a highly civil debate Thursday night that revealed more similarities than differences.

Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), Marian W. La Follette and Fillmore Councilman Roger Campbell called for easing regulations on business, allowing school boards greater control of neighborhood schools and reforming workers’ compensation laws.

Wright said her 12 years of experience in the Assembly and her seat as vice chairwoman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee place her in the best situation to accomplish these goals. “I think we have the best opportunity in the world right now to restructure the way government works in California,” Wright said. “And I’m going to be part of that.”

La Follette, who served in the Assembly from 1980 to 1990, also cited her legislative experience in urging voters to elect her in the newly drawn 19th state Senate District that stretches from Oxnard to the San Fernando Valley.

La Follette, who recently moved to Thousand Oaks, called for tax incentives to help the community’s businesses expand and help lure new ones to Ventura County and to the Valley.

“We need to change the anti-business attitude in Sacramento to make businesses more welcome,” she said.

Campbell, who owns an auto-repair business, said he would seek a two-year moratorium on business regulations if elected to the seat being vacated by retiring state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita).

He said he would form a task force to determine the cost and benefits of all such regulations. “We would throw out the regulations that are not cost-effective,” he told the 50 members of the audience attending the forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Ventura County.

Hank Phillip Starr, who is uncontested in the Democratic primary, told the audience at Simi Valley City Hall that all of his potential opponents in the November election are too far to the right or too far to the left.

“I’m dead in the center; I’m going to represent all of you,” he said.

Libertarian candidate Richard N. Burns and Peace and Freedom Party candidate Charles Najbergier also attended the event.

Najbergier said America needs to rework how it elects its public officeholders because too much emphasis is placed on candidates with the most money. “I’m the candidate against the regime,” he said. “This is no longer a democracy. Those who have the bucks get elected.”

Yet most of the action came among the three candidates competing for the GOP nomination in the 19th Senate District.

Campbell said both La Follette and Wright should be held partially responsible for the budget problems the state is now facing. “Ask yourself, ‘Are things better now than they were in 1980?’ Both of my opponents have been there since 1980. It’s time for a change. It’s time for Middle America to take back Sacramento.”