SOAR Ahead Amid Low Turnout in County

In one of the lowest turnouts in local history, Ventura County voters went to the polls Tuesday--showing strong support for countywide and local SOAR growth control measures, picking two new state Assembly members and deciding a hotly contested race for Superior Court judge.

Early returns showed Measure B, the countywide Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiative, garnering well over the majority vote needed for passage. The hottest local issue in recent county history, the measure would prevent politicians from rezoning farmland and open space outside cities for development without voter approval through 2020.

SOAR leader Steve Bennett said that voters demonstrated that they want direct control of how the county grows.

“The people of Ventura County don’t want the cities to sprawl together,” Bennett said. “They want each city to maintain a distinct identity. And they want a buffer from urban congestion that we unfortunately face too often in our lives.”

In a hard-fought battle to succeed outgoing Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard) in the 37th Assembly District, Republican Tony Strickland and Democrat Roz McGrath were locked in a close race. Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson and Republican Chris Mitchum were in a dead heat in another expensive contest to replace retiring Assemblyman Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos) in the 35th District.

U.S. Rep Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) coasted to reelection in his 23rd Congressional District contest against Democrat Dan Gonzalez, while Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) was leading Republican Randy Hoffman in the 24th Congressional District in early returns.

Hoping to succeed suspended District Judge Robert Bradley, prosecutor Kevin McGee took an early lead over public defender Gary Windom, but Windom was slowly gaining ground as the night progressed.

In the race for the Ventura County Board of Education, incumbent Marty Bates held an early lead over former Rio schools Supt. Peter Rogalsky, while incumbent Al Rosen was in a closer race against Anheuser-Busch plant manager Kevin Desrosiers.

Seeking reelection on the Ventura County Community College District, incumbents John Tallman, Norm Nagel and Pete Tafoya held comfortable leads over their challengers. Tallman led Jane Advani, Nagel was ahead of Tom Parker, and Tafoya led Ben Guerrero and Deshay David Ford.

And in the contest to decide the next county assessor, in-house candidate Jim Dodd was in a tight race with private appraiser Dan Goodwin.

County elections chief Bruce Bradley, who had expected a 62% voter turnout, said that the actual turnout would be one of the lowest in county history.

“We’re probably not better than 55%,” he said. “It’s the lowest [turnout] I can think of.”

Proponents and opponents of SOAR each spent more than $300,000 on the growth control drive this fall, with SOAR activists promoting the virtues of curbing urban sprawl and the anti-SOAR Coalition for Community Planning warning of unintended consequences for farmers, businesses and homeowners.

In addition to the countywide Measure B, the SOAR campaign put measures before voters in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Oxnard, Camarillo and Santa Paula to prevent the cities from expanding their borders without a vote of the people. Only in Santa Paula was a local SOAR measure losing in the early returns.

Also on the ballot was Measure A, which polled the public on support for the recommendations of a panel studying ways to preserve agriculture, as well as a county plan to start a government district to purchase open space and farmland. Like Measure B, it appeared headed for passage.

The countywide SOAR measure drew support from some unlikely voters.

“I like seeing the farmland,” a Republican woman who identified herself only as Kris said outside a polling place in north Oxnard. “I like seeing the green. And my husband’s a developer.”

Not everyone, however, believed SOAR was the best way to stop unchecked urbanization.

“The ideas are right, but . . . it could be bad for you later on,” said Republican Robert Boulter, a Port Hueneme Navy engineer. “I think this puts too many limits on [growth].”

In the race for the 37th Assembly District seat being vacated by Takasugi because of term limits, voters in Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Oxnard, Moorpark and Port Hueneme were bombarded with a last-minute deluge of political junk mail from both candidates.

McGrath, a schoolteacher and member of a pioneering county farming family, received about $200,000 in the final days of the campaign and put out 13 mailers painting Strickland as a right-wing extremist beholden to the gun lobby and antiabortion groups.

Strickland, a legislative aide to Assemblyman Tom McClintock, sent out his share of attack pieces, portraying McGrath as a closet liberal whose values are out of touch with mainstream county voters.

In the race for the 35th Assembly District seat being vacated by Firestone, voters in Ventura, Ojai, Santa Paula and Fillmore faced a similar shelling from Jackson and Mitchum.

Jackson, an attorney and former Santa Barbara prosecutor, slammed Mitchum for his financial contributions from the gun lobby.

Mitchum, the actor son of screen legend Robert Mitchum, in turn criticized Jackson as a hypocrite in radio ads for owning oil company stocks while claiming to oppose offshore oil drilling.

Staff writers Coll Metcalfe, Tracy Wilson, Hilary E. MacGregor, Leo Smith and Rod Bosch contributed to this report.

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