Candidates Begin Final Push Toward Fall Balloting

From the top of the ballot to the bottom, Ventura County voters will make this fall a series of choices between candidates who could hardly be more different.

As the traditional election season kicks off this Labor Day weekend, dozens of candidates with starkly different views on such hot-button issues as illegal immigration, gun control and abortion rights will take to the stump.

Meanwhile, holding center stage among local ballot initiatives is the watershed campaign to save Ventura County farmland and open space.

The most contentious races threaten to break records for cost--especially in two rancorous Assembly races that pit women Democrats against more conservative Republican men.

No less volatile are the contests for the county’s two congressional seats, one held by a six-term Republican conservative and the other by a one-term Democrat who champions his environmental credentials. Even President Clinton’s morality promises to come into play as the campaign unfolds.

“The dividing line between candidates has become sharper in both local and national races right now,” said Santa Barbara political consultant John Davies, who has run several Ventura County campaigns. “The conservative Republicans have made gains in some legislative races. And the liberal Democrats have taken more of a hold than at any time in the Clinton era.”

An array of local races also offers the electorate candidates with a full spectrum of political views, and a variety of professional experience.

A rare contested election for Superior Court pits a top prosecutor against a high-profile defense attorney. A race for the obscure position of county assessor promises to be expensive.

Mayoral elections will lead the municipal ballots in Simi Valley, Oxnard and Moorpark. Indeed, voters in every local city except Ventura and Port Hueneme will choose city council members Nov. 3.

Trustee seats in all three community college district areas are on the ballot. School board races from one end of the county to the other will--among other things--test the staying power of the county’s conservative Christian trustees. And in Oak Park, voters will decide whether to reinstate a former school board member who resigned this year after hosting a party where alcohol was served.

Voters in Ojai will decide whether to hike the city’s hotel tax, while residents of Santa Paula and Fillmore consider a tax on utilities to pay for local services.

And for the third time, Conejo Valley residents will be asked to join a parade of other local school districts in approving a multimillion-dollar bond measure.

“It’s the biggest ballot in a long time,” county elections chief Bruce Bradley said. “There are lots of choices. Some of them are for positions and people you’ve never heard of.”

The fall campaign season officially opens Monday, when local Democrats hold their Labor Day picnic at Camarillo Grove County Park. Republicans will mark their official start a week later with a barbecue fund-raiser at a Las Posas Valley ranch.

When its over, Bradley expects about 237,000 voters, or 60% of those registered, to cast a ballot.

Contentious Assembly Races

Of all the races, those for two Assembly seats show the most promise for philosophical conflict and big-money expenditures. Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard) in the 37th District is stepping down because of term limits and Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos) in the 35th District is retiring.

The race to succeed Takasugi pits Democrat Roz McGrath, 51, a Somis kindergarten teacher and member of an influential farm family, against 28-year-old Tony Strickland, a protege of Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge).

Strickland, who has run full time since December after leaving his job as a McClintock aide, declares himself a Reagan Republican and promises to build on the Reagan Revolution.

“I’m pure conservative, but I’m in the mainstream of what the voters of this district represent,” Strickland said.

He is considered the favorite, in part because the 37th District has 3,500 more Republicans than Democrats and a Republican has held the seat for at least 30 years.

Also, the former Simi Valley high school basketball star has shown he can raise lots of money from business interests: He spent $189,000 in the primary and got nearly half the Republican votes in a five-candidate race. Since then he said he has raised $116,000.

“The fund-raising is going phenomenally,” he said. “That’s not a problem. If she [McGrath] raises $500,000, I’ll raise more. But I personally don’t think she’ll raise that.”

McGrath, who lost to Takasugi 51% to 44% in 1992, has raised about $40,000, she said. She hopes to double that. And if polls show she is running a strong race, then she believes she will get big money from state Democratic leaders.

“Hopefully, they’ll realize this race is winnable for them,” she said.

In fact, Assembly Speaker Antonio R. Villaraigosa said Friday the Democratic Party will poll McGrath’s district within two weeks to learn if she is competitive with Strickland.

“If she’s within seven or 10 percentage points, and he’s out-spending her, then we’d be very interested in that race,” Villaraigosa said. “To the extent that it’s close, we’ll focus on her election and we’ll put resources into it.”

But state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo) said it will be hard for McGrath to win.

“I told her to keep working hard, walk precincts, raise money and walk more precincts,” he said.

Some local Republicans caution that a Strickland win is no sure thing.

“Roz McGrath could be the surprise of 1998 if the Democrats get strongly behind her,” said consultant Davies, who ran Takasugi’s campaign against McGrath in 1992. “With the McGrath name, she had more name ID in ’92 than Nao did.”

McGrath even won the city of Oxnard, where Takasugi was mayor, but trailed badly in Thousand Oaks.

County Republican Chairman Paul Leavens said he believes McGrath will be competitive with Strickland because of her roots in the county and connections with old farm families. “I think Tony is going to win because the east county is so conservative, but that race could be a real tough one.”

A number of prominent Republican farmers crossed over last month to declare their support of McGrath.

“There’s no race in California that has two more distinct candidates in terms of being on the opposite ends of the political spectrum,” McGrath said. “He’s a far-right-wing extremist backed by the likes of the NRA [National Rifle Assn.] and the Christian Coalition.”

Strickland said he is backed mostly by business people and by voters who want tax cuts and smaller government.

“The Christian Coalition doesn’t back any candidate,’ he said. “But I’m proud of having the backing of the NRA.”

Reform Party candidate Michael Farris is also in the race. The 37th District includes Moorpark, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard and Camarillo.

A Costly Legislative Race

A similar debate is brewing in the 35th District, which includes Ventura and Ojai and is centered in Santa Barbara County.

There, Republicans and Democrats expect to spend up to $1 million each to capture a seat that could decide whether the Democrats retain control of the Assembly.

Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson, 48, a family law attorney in Ventura and Santa Barbara, is trying to regain a seat that was Democratic for 20 years until moderate Republican Firestone won in 1994.

Republican Chris Mitchum, 54, an actor and son of the late actor Robert Mitchum, has been working full time since February to save the seat.

Mitchum and Jackson, both of whom live in Santa Barbara, say their views mirror those of their constituents. He says she’s a left-wing liberal. She says he’s far too conservative to reflect the district.

“It should be an easy distinction for voters,” said Jackson, a former deputy district attorney for Santa Barbara County.

“I favor a moratorium on off-shore oil drilling, my opponent does not,” she said. “I favor reasonable, rational gun control, my opponent is opposed to banning Saturday night specials and wants to rescind the ban on assault weapons. On abortion, I support a woman’s right to choice, my opponent is opposed to any government funding to family planning.”

Mitchum said Jackson has distorted his views in public statements. “Either she’s badly informed, or she’s lying,” he said.

Mitchum said he favors the moratorium on offshore drilling, but recognizes that one day when supplies are low nationwide it will be necessary to recover the oil off the Central California coast.

He said he has been endorsed by actor and old friend Charlton Heston, president of the NRA. But he said he would be willing to consider a ban on small-caliber handguns. He is opposed to a ban on semiautomatic weapons “because a lot of hunters use semiautomatic weapons.”

He said he supports a woman’s right to have an abortion, but does not want the government to pay for it except in cases of rape, incest and when the woman’s life is in danger.

He said he is cut in the mold of Firestone, a fiscal conservative and a moderate on many social issues.

“To me she’s an ideal opponent, because the differences between us are very clear,” Mitchum said.

O’Connell, who held the seat until moving up to the Senate, said the race “is going to be very, very close. It’s a targeted race by both sides, and it could very well tilt the balance of power in the state Assembly.”

Natural Law Party candidate Eric Dahl is also on the 35th District ballot.

Congressional Races

In the county’s two congressional races, incumbents are the odds-on favorites.

Rep. Elton Gallegly, a conservative Republican, is challenged by attorney Daniel Gonzalez. Both are from Simi Valley.

Gallegly, 54, has cruised to six consecutive victories even though more Democrats are registered to vote in his 23rd Congressional District than are Republicans. Gallegly has more than $600,000 in the bank, and Gonzalez said he has perhaps $5,000, but hopes to raise $100,000 to $150,000 by November.

Gonzalez, 42, president of the 35-member Mexican American Bar Assn. of Ventura County, said Gallegly, a former Simi Valley mayor, can be beaten if Democrats get west county voters to the polls.

“We can defeat him with a lot of walking, a lot of canvassing,” Gonzalez said. So far, Gonzalez said, he has 145 volunteers willing to work the campaign.

Gonzalez said Gallegly is vulnerable because he has done little for war veterans, favors “inhumane treatment” of illegal immigrants, backs a Mexican guest-worker program that is “institutionalized slavery,” has a poor record on education and takes too much credit for saving the county’s Navy bases.

Also, Gonzalez said if Gallegly speaks out against President Clinton once independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s report reaches Congress, then Gonzalez will make Gallegly’s personal life an issue. “If he makes an issue of the president’s sexual life, then I think people in glass houses ought to be careful.”

Gallegly said he has nothing to hide and dismissed Gonzalez as a political unknown with no track record.

“I don’t know my opponent, and I haven’t met anyone else who has either, and that’s honest,” Gallegly said. He cited his 2-1 margin over Gonzalez in the June open primary.

“We spent no money in the primary, and we got 20% more votes than our party registration,” Gallegly said. “My opponent had 10% fewer votes than his party’s registration. That’s a pretty good poll of where the voters are.”

As for Gonzalez’s attacks on his opponent’s record, Gallegly said, “It’s a pretty sad commentary when a person can only make up negative things instead of trying to say something positive about himself.”

Gallegly said he received the highest award from one of the nation’s largest veterans’ groups last year. He opposes taxpayer support of services for illegal immigrants, he said. And he favors the guest worker program because it protects the rights of field workers who are too afraid to complain about abuse, he said.

Gallegly said he is an effective congressman as shown by passage of two of his bills last year out of 120 approved by Congress.

In the county’s other congressional race, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) will face millionaire Republican Randy Hoffman in an increasingly hostile war of words.

The two candidates have spent most of their summer raising money and rallying the party faithful in the district, which includes the west San Fernando Valley and parts of Ventura County.

Top-ranking Republicans have already dropped in to stump for Hoffman and cite the political scandal surrounding President Clinton.

Sherman acknowledged Clinton’s admitted sexual indiscretion with White House intern Monica Lewinsky may temper Democratic support, saying, “It was not only wrong, but stupid.”

But he doubts the presidential scandal will deliver a crushing political victory for Republicans, in his district or across the nation.

Sherman squeaked into Congress in 1996, capturing 49% of the vote to beat Republican Rich Sybert and marking his as one of the GOP’s juiciest targets this election.

Hoffman, former chief executive officer of Magellan Systems, a high-tech company that manufacturers hand-held global positioning systems, has donated the costly devices to “freedom fighters fighting communism” and to groups working to preserve the Santa Monica Mountains.

Battle Over Farmland

Also before county voters are a series of ballot initiatives that would prevent vast stretches of farmland and open space from being developed without voters’ approval.

The Save Open-space and Agricultural Resources measures will appear on a countywide ballot and on ballots in Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Camarillo and Santa Paula.

After conducting the largest petition drive in Ventura County history, SOAR activists are hoping to raise at least $200,000 to counter what they expect to be a multimillion-dollar drive by opponents.

Convinced that Ventura County politicians cannot be trusted to corral urban sprawl, the citizens’ group seeks to prevent elected leaders from allowing more development than current general plans, or growth blueprints, allow.

The measures would strip county leaders of power to rezone farm and open space land for development unless voters gave their OK, and would prevent city leaders from expanding city borders without voters’ approval.

“A lot of people feel that what’s been happening to their hometown is almost criminal,” said Thousand Oaks Councilwoman Linda Parks, a SOAR organizer.

But SOAR opponents question the need to take such important decisions out of the hands of politicians, saying the county’s future should not be decided by so-called “ballot-box planning.”

They argue the measures would hurt local farmers’ ability to change crops and survive in the global marketplace. The measures would also drive up land prices inside cities, increasing the cost of housing, and hurting the county’s ability to lure and keep businesses, they argue.

The Coalition for Community Planning, a group that includes union officials, farmers, affordable-housing advocates and building industry representatives, plans to “reach every voter in the county” through an extensive media and polling blitz, according to Executive Director Susan Eastman.

Judge’s Race

County voters also will choose a new judge.

Deputy Public Defender Gary Windom spent $54,000 and Assistant Dist. Atty. Kevin McGee $40,000 to survive a three-lawyer primary race to replace Superior Court Judge Robert Bradley. The third candidate, Cathleen Drury, is supporting Windom.

In the primary, McGee received 40% of the vote, Windom 31% and Drury 29%.

Windom and McGee are just beginning to restock their campaign chests for a fall push. Windom said he has $17,000 in the bank and expects to spend $60,000. McGee said he has $10,000 and thinks he will need to raise $30,000 more.

“It’s just like starting all over again,” Windom said. “But we’re extremely encouraged by Cathleen’s participation in our campaign. She’s talking to her constituency. We have a very good chance of pulling this thing off in November.”

Windom, 47, said he brings diversity to a court dominated by former county prosecutors, since he was a civil lawyer for 10 years and has been a criminal defense lawyer for 13 years.

Boasting an array of endorsements by law enforcement officials and by 13 sitting judges, McGee, 44, claims the law and order mantle.

“I just keep emphasizing the same message: I want to keep Ventura County a safe community where the justice system works effectively,” he said.

“We obviously have different backgrounds and philosophies,” McGee said. “My background is holding people accountable for their criminal conduct. The values he represents are protecting individual rights over the community’s right to be safe.”

McGee said he does not believe Drury’s support of Windom will hurt him.

Times staff writers Miguel Bustillo and Phil Willon contributed to this story.