ELECTIONS / THOUSAND OAKS COUNCIL : Candidates Believe TV Ads Won’t Be Big Factor

Trudi Loh walking through a spring-green park, hoisting her youngest daughter onto her hip, surrounded by a group of children. Mike Markey gazing earnestly at a map of Thousand Oaks’ ring of open space.

These are the images Thousand Oaks residents who subscribe to cable television will be seeing in the next few days, sandwiched between old movies, talk shows and O.J. Simpson trial updates.

But in contrast to the fall campaign, where eight of 16 candidates crowded on the cable stations--spending a combined $32,000 on television time--Loh, an attorney, and Markey, a Compton homicide detective, are devoting far less of their resources and time to the high-tech campaigning.

Loh said she bought about $3,000 in 30-second spots, which are airing over about 10 days. According to Ventura County Cablevision account executive Jim Fisher, Markey spent $2,000 for a blitz of advertising to be aired on a variety of cable channels this weekend.

And the three other candidates for the Thousand Oaks City Council, John Ellis, Ramaul Rush and Lance Winslow, have not bought any advertising time on cable television. Although the slots do not cost that much--Markey gets to see his commercial 100 times for $2,000--Rush and Ellis decided months ago to spend less than $1,000 on the entire election.

Winslow, who raised about half of his $6,000 war chest and loaned himself the rest, considered television advertising, but decided to spend his money on mailers. And he pointed out that he got a blast of last-minute publicity, albeit negative, with his appearance in Municipal Court on Tuesday--his third in as many weeks--to plead guilty to a speeding ticket.

“I was trying to figure out how to get my name in the newspaper again,” Winslow said jokingly. “So I saw that state trooper in my rearview mirror and I sped up.”

No matter what campaign issues they might haggle over, the candidates seem united in their belief that Tuesday’s special election to fill the pivotal fifth seat on the City Council is more likely to be won shaking hands than popping up on television screens.

“I’m not sure this is a TV race,” said Loh’s campaign manager Debra Creadick. “I think it’s a voter contact race.”

Because it is a small election, with only one seat open and nothing else on the ballot, candidates are expecting only die-hard members of Thousand Oaks’ 62,000 registered voters to turn out.

County Board of Elections official Bruce Bradley is more optimistic, saying the large number of requests he has received for absentee ballots indicate the turnout could be anywhere from 30% to 40%.

Bradley said his office has mailed out 6,600 absentee ballots. Of those, 4,200 have been filled out and returned.

With so many votes already decided, Loh said her campaign opted to use television less as a means of wooing than of reminding people to vote. Instead she has focused on attending “coffees”--parties in homes of her supporters with 30 or so guests in a more intimate setting--and knocking on doors in every precinct in the city.

Her commercial, which cost about $500 to make, shows Loh walking and talking with voters. She visits the mountains, she visits the parks and she chats with business owners.

On Wednesday, Markey declined to make his commercial available for viewing, saying it is not finished. But Fisher of the cable company said he had sent a tape of the completed advertisement to the cable company’s Santa Monica office on Tuesday in preparation for airing it Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Markey’s decision to wait until Saturday to begin airing his commercials raised fears in the Loh camp that he plans to strike out at her in his advertisement.

“I’m curious because obviously a lot of people are gone on the weekend,” Loh said. “And if you say something your opponent doesn’t like on a weekend, they have no chance to respond.”

But John Powers, Markey’s campaign manager, described the commercial as a series of warm and fuzzy stills showing the Compton homicide detective in natural settings around the city.

“You know, there is a shot of Michael looking down, high atop some mountain, panning over the Conejo Valley,” Powers said.