Other Than Turnout, Few Surprises Locally

In a dramatically low turnout for a presidential election, Ventura County voters made their choices Tuesday in a wide array of races deciding everything from bitterly fought school board battles to who will occupy the White House for the next four years.

But, with the vote trickling slowly in throughout the night, many ballots were still to be counted, making it impossible to determine the winners of many races.

With only the early votes counted, Mike Morgan and Kathy Long were locked in a close race for an open seat being vacated by Supervisor Maggie Kildee, who is stepping down after 16 years on the county Board of Supervisors.

On the county Board of Education, the early vote showed voters were favoring school board veteran Janet Lindgren over Wendy Larner, a member of the board’s conservative Christian majority.

But conservative Ron Matthews was running ahead of Paul Chatman, a former Democratic leader from Oxnard, holding on in the early returns to the current conservative 3-2 balance of power on the five-member Board of Education.

“Whether I’m on the board or not I fully intend to inform all the parents and the taxpayers of all the issues facing the board,” Larner said.

In the 24th Congressional District representing Thousand Oaks, Republican Rich Sybert remained in a tight race with Democrat Brad Sherman.

*

In other congressional and legislative races, Rep. Elton Gallegly of Simi Valley led other seasoned Republican lawmakers headed for victory over poorly financed Democratic challengers. In the presidential race, President Clinton was running ahead of his 1992 showing in the county, partly because of a sharp drop-off in the Ross Perot vote.

Throughout the day, election officials remarked at the low voter turnout. By late afternoon, the turnout was running about 12 percentage points behind the turnout in the presidential race four years ago.

“It could be a record low turnout,” said county elections chief Bruce Bradley.

The conservative nature of county voters revealed itself again in the early returns, as they brushed aside efforts to raise local taxes to subsidize police in Oxnard. However, voters were showing more support for a measure to build a new high school in a district that covers Oxnard and Camarillo. Both measures required a two-thirds majority.

*

A measure in Thousand Oaks to increase the city’s tax on new development to pay for parks and more open space also was failing to get the two-thirds vote needed for passage in early returns. But voters who cast absentee ballots in Thousand Oaks were supporting a second ballot measure requiring voter approval of higher density levels than currently allowed.

Nine of the 10 cities in Ventura County also held city council elections, including heated races in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard.

Early returns showed Linda Parks, a planning commissioner and slow-growth advocate, and Thousand Oaks Councilman Mike Markey leading a crowded field for the city’s two open council seats.

In Oxnard, Mayor Manuel Lopez easily fended off three challengers in the mayor’s race. In the race for two council seats, John C. Zaragoza, Bedford Pinkard, and Andres Herrera were tightly bunched in the early vote.

“It’s very gratifying that the city shows that much support,” said Lopez, who won his third term as mayor and who has served as an elected official in Oxnard since 1978.

Said Zaragoza: “I’m feeling great because we’ve put a lot of work into it. We walked a lot of precincts.”

The county supervisor’s race pitted Morgan, a veteran Camarillo councilman, against Long, a senior aide to Kildee.

With little disagreement between them on key issues, the candidates spent much of the campaign arguing over who was best qualified to serve on the Board of Supervisors.

Morgan said his 16 years on the Camarillo City Council had prepared him for county supervisor, whose responsibilities include managing an $860-million annual budget and overseeing 7,000 government employees.

*

Long, on the other hand, said her five years working in Kildee’s office gave her a better understanding of the widely diverse 3rd District, which includes Camarillo, Fillmore, Ojai, Santa Paula and portions of Thousand Oaks.

At the polls Tuesday, Camarillo voter Beth Johnson said she supported Long because of her association with Kildee, who has represented the district since 1980.

“I like the fact that she worked for Maggie Kildee,” said Johnson, 34. “I liked a lot of what Maggie did, and I think Kathy will follow up on those things.”

But 82-year-old Arte Duval Donlon voiced support for Morgan.

“I’ve watched him grow up,” said Donlon. “He’s a local boy.”

The fight over two seats on the county Board of Education attracted the attention of Christian radio broadcaster Edward G. Atsinger of Camarillo, a longtime power in state politics who decided to set up a local political action committee.

The multimillionaire’s PAC contributed more than $15,000 worth of political mailers and cash to Matthews and Larner, the two socially conservative candidates.

But Lindgren also managed to assemble considerable financial support, including $3,000 from a political action committee that mounted an unsuccessful bid last year to recall Larner.

One vote cast against Larner on Tuesday was by Ventura College student Brandon Bartholme.

“I didn’t like the way she was bringing religion into the schools,” he said.

*

But teacher Joann Cervantes of Camarillo said she liked Larner’s spunk.

“I don’t think you can separate your faith from your lifestyle,” she said. “I mean, you can’t leave it at home.”

“All of this controversy has been a distraction,” county schools Supt. Charles Weis said Tuesday. “My hope is that the county Board of Education will go back into relative obscurity . . . . And that no matter who gets elected, we get back to business of helping kids learn.”

In addition to the Board of Education, another 11 school districts held elections for openings on school boards from the Conejo Valley to the Ojai Valley. Atsinger’s PAC also contributed thousands of dollars to conservative candidates in these races.

Of the county’s two congressional races, the contest to replace retiring Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) attracted the most heated rhetoric, the most attention and the most money.

Sybert, a toy company executive, and Sherman, a State Board of Equalization member, together spent more than $2 million in the slugfest over the seat that both Republican and Democratic leaders see as important to determining which party controls the House of Representatives.

Sybert expected to win big in heavily Republican Thousand Oaks, but some GOP faithful broke ranks with their party.

“I did vote for Sherman, in part because he was backed by wildlife groups,” said Suzanne Moore, a Thousand Oaks Republican. “I got a lot of literature on this, and I think I made a pretty informed vote.”

In the other congressional race, Gallegly faced a challenge by Democrat Bob Unruhe, a retired schoolteacher now living in Ojai.

Unruhe, 73, fired shots at Gallegly for joining House Republican leaders in voting to reduce Medicare spending, but had difficulty raising enough money to get his message to voters in the district that covers all of Ventura County except for most of Thousand Oaks.

*

Of the state lawmakers running for reelection, Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard) faced the most spirited challenger, Jess Herrera, an Oxnard longshoreman and board member of the Oxnard Harbor District.

Herrera took political shots at Takasugi on a number of fronts, such as accepting donations from tobacco companies and siding with tobacco interests on a tax issue.

Takasugi, Oxnard’s former mayor and a political institution, ran a low-key campaign focused on his own accomplishments during his lengthy public service.

“He has great experience and he has done well in improving Oxnard’s economy over the decades,” said Dan Musgrove, an Oxnard Democrat who voted Tuesday for Takasugi.

In the 38th Assembly District that covers Simi Valley and Fillmore, former Assemblyman Tom McClintock relied on years of political experience and fund-raising skills to mount his comeback campaign against Democratic rival Jon Lauritzen for a seat being vacated by Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills).

State Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), running for her final four-year term in the Legislature, was challenged by Democrat John Birke, a Chatsworth attorney who is less than half her age.

Assemblyman Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos) also drew a young Democratic challenger, 22-year-old UC Santa Barbara student Aneesh Lele.

Dozens of candidates also competed in city council elections in nine cities in Ventura County. In addition to races in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard, city council seats were at stake in Camarillo, Simi Valley, Fillmore, Ojai, Santa Paula, Port Hueneme and Moorpark.

There also were 10 local ballot measures, ranging from a charter city measure in Port Hueneme to the growth measure in Thousand Oaks, Measure E, which would require a public vote on any residential and commercial development that exceeds standards for density.

The ballot in Thousand Oaks also included Measure D, designed to increase the city’s tax on new residential contribution to help pay for more parks and open space. It requires a two-thirds vote for passage.

*

Across the county, a 3.5% utility tax for police and fire services in Oxnard and the $57-million school bond issue in the Oxnard Union High School District both faced the steep hurdle of a two-thirds majority for passage.

“I’m sick and tired of taxes, of tax on top of tax,” said Mike Snelson, emerging from a voting booth in Oxnard. “I think that’s almost everybody’s opinion.”

Statewide propositions also brought some people to the polling booth.

At the North Ranch Community Center in Westlake, Ben Shannon, 20, said he decided to vote for one reason: He was a strong supporter of Proposition 215.

“I think marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes,” Shannon said. “I also think it should be legalized for recreational purposes, but this is a start.”

* LATEST RESULTS: A24