Boland Aide Drops Out of Assembly Race

Scott Wilk, chief of staff to Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland, has decided to drop out of the race for her Assembly seat, saying he cannot stomach the “slash and burn” style of campaign he would need to defeat fellow Republican candidates.

Wilk said he made his decision after former Assemblyman Tom McClintock’s last-minute entry into the race in the 38th Assembly District, which includes Simi Valley, Fillmore and western portions of the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

McClintock, a former Thousand Oaks Republican who has been living in Sacramento, was recruited as a candidate by a powerful conservative political action committee affiliated with Senate GOP leader Rob Hurtt of Garden Grove.

“McClintock’s candidacy greatly alters the dynamics of this contest,” Wilk wrote in a letter to his supporters. “My consultant and others have informed me that it will take another $150,000 and a highly negative ‘slash and burn’ campaign to defeat McClintock.”

Wilk said he did not want to mount a nasty campaign, nor ruin a political alliance with McClintock.

Wilk said he will not endorse another candidate in the race. He said he will return much of the political cash he has raised and take whatever is left to recruit and train conservative candidates for school board and other local offices.

Wilk said he will continue to work for Boland (R-Granada Hills) through next year, when she will have to retire from the Assembly because of voter-imposed term limits. Boland is running for state Senate.

With Wilk’s departure from the Assembly race, the remaining GOP candidates are Steve Frank, a Simi Valley government affairs consultant; Peggy Freeman, retired director of a Santa Clarita Valley community clinic; Robert Hamlin, a retired sheriff’s deputy who lives in Castaic; Ross Hopkins, a Canoga Park public affairs consultant; Bob Larkin, a Simi Valley insurance agent, and McClintock.