Primary Lessons

The votes are all counted and the campaign signs are coming down--legally this time.

What can Ventura County learn from the first “blanket primary,” in which voters were free to skip across party lines?

* We learned that Ventura County voters have little use for a candidate who prowls the night vandalizing the signs of his opponent and then falsely denies the dastardly deed to reporters. Rich Sybert, once considered the front-runner for the 37th District Assembly seat, did exactly that and polled only 7% of the vote Tuesday. The dramatic self-destruction of Sybert’s campaign so thoroughly dominated the campaign that little attention was paid to political differences among the candidates. As Republican primary victor Tony Strickland and Democrat Roz McGrath prepare for their two-way matchup in November, we hope voters will be spared such a sideshow. May victory go to the candidate who best represents the views of the voters on the real issues.

* We were reminded that Ventura County tends to be more conservative than the rest of Southern California on many issues. Proposition 226, the conservative-sponsored measure designed to neuter the political clout of organized labor, was supported by 51% of Ventura County voters but failed to pass with only 47% yes votes statewide. Proposition 227 on bilingual education, opposed by many liberals despite widespread disagreement among the Latino population it would most directly affect, drew 66% support in Ventura County, even more than the 61% it received statewide.

* We learned that Ventura County voters don’t change horses lightly. Incumbents easily held on to their seats in two supervisorial districts, the county school superintendent’s office and the county auditor’s office, despite challenges that ranged from nominal to spirited.

* And we learned that many voters, for all their support of vigorous crime fighting and the indisputable success of the county’s law-and-order establishment, don’t see the world quite as simply as black hats versus white hats. Endorsed by virtually every judge, prosecutor and law-enforcement agency in the county, Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Kevin McGee won 40% of the votes to fill a vacancy on the Superior Court bench. But the two challengers, each of whom entered the campaign with expertise in different facets of the judicial system, polled a total of 59%. When McGee faces Deputy Public Defender Gary Windom in the November runoff, look for even livelier debate on whether Ventura County’s courts need to be packed with former prosecutors to ensure public safety or if they would benefit from more diversity.