Man Disqualified in Council Seat Race

Ventura County election officials have disqualified Oxnard goldsmith Michael Racine from a March 2 special election to fill the council seat left vacant by Manuel Lopez’s election as mayor.

The county registrar of voters has determined that Racine failed to gather enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, City Clerk Daniel Martinez said Tuesday. To qualify for the election, candidates had to gather the signatures of at least 20 registered voters.

Martinez said Racine turned in 28 signatures, but 11 were disqualified for various reasons. He filed on Dec. 24, the last day of the filing period.

“If he had filed earlier, he might have had time to gather more signatures,” Martinez said. “That’s why we encourage people to file early.”

Racine said Thursday that he plans to conduct a write-in campaign. “I don’t do something halfway,” he said.

Thirteen other candidates are seeking to fill Lopez’s empty council seat in the special election.

The candidates are: Deborah DeMoss, a homemaker; Tony V. Grey, a former planning commissioner and Navy employee; Thomas Edward Holden, an optometrist; Alice Rivera Howe; Tsujio Kato, a dentist; and Roy Lockwood, a retired federal fire chief.

The others are: John Patton Sr.; John D. Quigley, a sewage treatment plant worker; Patrick J. Sammon, president of the Sea View Neighborhood Council; Ralph C. Schumacher, an Oxnard planning commissioner and Abex Aerospace executive; Juan Soria, a businessman; Lawrence Stein, an accountant; and Lee Casey-Telles, a business owner and county Republican Central Committee member.