VENTURA : 3 Council Candidates Win Endorsements
The local chapter of the Sierra Club and the Voters’ Coalition of Ventura announced their endorsements Thursday of three Ventura City Council candidates.
The two environmental groups are endorsing Steve Bennett and incumbent Councilmen Todd Collart and Gary Tuttle.
Voters’ Coalition spokesman Bob Dodge said the two groups chose the candidates based on whether they oppose a five-year review period for a proposed greenbelt between Ventura and Oxnard.
“We sent a questionnaire to each candidate and these were the only three candidates who opposed the five-year greenbelt,” Dodge said. “The five-year review is ridiculous. It makes the greenbelt sort of tenuous.”
Although both Collart and Tuttle recently voted in favor of establishing the greenbelt with a five-year review, they said they were forced to approve the five-year clause or risk losing the agreement altogether.
Dodge said the two environmental groups will provide volunteers to walk precincts for the three candidates. The Voters’ Coalition is a grass-roots group that helped elect Collart and Tuttle to office in 1989. The two councilmen also were heavily backed by clothing company Patagonia and campaigned on a slow-growth platform.
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