2 Neighbors in Battle to Lead GOP Committee

Oxnard residents Leslie Cornejo and Jackie Rodgers live in the same neighborhood, their kids attend the same schools and they are both die-hard Republicans who volunteer countless hours for the party through the GOP Central Committee.

But the two women are now squaring off in opposite corners, locked in a political free-for-all for the committee’s top post and, some say, the soul of Ventura County’s Republican Party.

It reflects a struggle taking place across the nation within Republican circles, a bruising ideological battle pitting conservatives against moderates over the party’s core principles and future direction.

And it is a struggle of some consequence, as the next chairwoman will appoint as many as eight delegates to the state Republican Party committee--a body of considerable clout but one grappling with similar issues of vision and values.

Rodgers, 35, appears to have the edge in an election scheduled for Monday in Camarillo.

A majority of the committee’s 29 elected and ex officio members--many part of a conservative, anti-abortion faction voted in during the March 7 primary--have promised to back the Oxnard native, a move that would make her the first African American to hold the post.

“I’m supporting Jackie because she is a very intelligent, capable person who will be able to work with everyone on the committee,” said Camarillo resident Thomas McCoy, who is among those trying to wrest control of the committee from a moderate faction now in charge.

“There’s no doubt we’re trying to take control,” McCoy added, “but that would be a good thing, because it would bring more unity to the party.”

On the other side is Cornejo, 44, who is supported by a group of moderates desperately trying to hold on to their influence on the Central Committee and move the party more toward the political center.

“I think she’s a terrific choice,” said longtime committee member Bob Larkin, a Simi Valley resident who heads a statewide group overseeing the push toward a more flexible party.

“What’s at stake is the direction of the Ventura County Republican Party,” he said. “What happens now is going to set the tone for years to come.”

Cornejo and Rodgers downplay the division.

They say the election is really about who is best qualified to lead the Central Committee--responsible for raising cash and lining up volunteers to work Republican campaigns--and putting an end to squabbling that has long plagued the party locally.

Both say it’s time to put ideological differences aside and focus on electing Republicans.

And both say they are best suited to lead that charge.

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But their positions on key issues--Rodgers is antiabortion, for instance, while Cornejo favors a woman’s right to choose--demonstrate the depth of their ideological differences.

Differences between the two candidates have also surfaced in more concrete ways, including a ballooning disagreement over when the election for the leadership post and several other top jobs should take place.

Rodgers and her supporters have called an election for Monday while Cornejo, who is the committee’s secretary and is responsible for scheduling such matters, has set the vote for April 17.

“I’m not anxious to throw dirt, but I am interested in fair play,” said Cornejo, who along with several of her supporters won’t even be in town this week. She contends Monday’s vote won’t count because it will occur during an illegal meeting.

“I can accept losing graciously, but I think they’re afraid they don’t really have the votes,” she said. “But even with all this infighting, I still feel I’m the better candidate to make this a workable committee.”

Rodgers and her supporters say they set the organizational meeting for Monday in compliance with the committee’s bylaws and only after current party leaders refused to call the meeting themselves.

With the general election only eight months away, they say it’s important to quickly establish the committee’s leadership and get busy promoting Republican candidates.

“We’re now ready to move forward and tackle the issue of uniting the party,” said Rodgers, who now serves as a caucus chairwoman on the committee’s executive board.

“We’re going to have our differences of course,” she added. “But we need to put those differences aside and work toward the common good of getting Republicans elected.”

This is not unfamiliar ground for Republicans in Ventura County and elsewhere.

Battles between moderates and conservatives have popped up for years in Republican central committees across the state, including the takeover a decade ago of the Ventura County committee by an antiabortion faction whose leader fanned controversy with his sympathetic words for former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

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In 1992, a group led by Larkin and Ventura citrus rancher Paul Leavens mounted a campaign to sweep the conservatives out of leadership positions.

The ensuing years were marked only by minor skirmishes between the two camps. But that changed earlier this year when 41 candidates squared off for the committee’s 22 seats, numbers not seen since the bitter ideological battles of 1992.

A slate backed by conservative Assemblyman Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) took half those seats during the March balloting, while a group of moderates, led by Leavens and Larkin, took the other half.

As the dust settled, Larkin and others accused Strickland of engineering a right-wing takeover of the committee, an accusation the legislator flatly denies.

“I’m flattered that people think I have that much power, but that’s just talk,” Strickland said.

Strickland said it’s true he had backed a slate of candidates that included his wife, mother and three of his staff members. But he said those candidates hold a range of political views and that the main thing they have in common is their willingness to register voters and work on behalf of Republicans.

Strickland said it’s also true he endorsed Rodgers over Leavens, the current committee chairman. He said he thought it important to promote a new brand of leadership more focused on voter registration and outreach to minorities and others who have traditionally shunned the GOP.

“It’s what the Republican Party should be about,” Strickland said. “The real story is that a lot of people want to be active in the Republican Party and that’s a good thing.”

But others worry there is something more nefarious at work.

Committee member Karen Kurta, who was voted off the committee in the March balloting, said she fears the dispute could undercut party efforts needed in several tough races countywide.

Kurta, a moderate, joined the committee in 1992 after becoming outraged by the conservative movement that had swallowed the local party. She said it’s important now the moderate voices not be drowned out to ensure a similar movement doesn’t take root again.

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“I keep saying we’ve got to get louder as moderates, but it’s not part of our makeup,” she said. “It’s hard to be a rabid moderate.”

For the moderates, ensuring such balance is important for other reasons.

Local committees choose many of the 1,400 members of the state party committee, which in turn chooses the chairman, picks the party platform and decides how to spend resources throughout California.

About 21 counties have committees in which a majority of members are considered moderates, Larkin said, while the remaining 37 counties have majorities comprised of social conservatives.

Former Assemblyman Brooks Firestone, a Santa Barbara centrist who is considering running next year for chairmanship of the state party, said he believes many Republicans have been turned off by the views espoused by the right wing.

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And he said that has resulted in sweeping election losses for Republicans in recent years and a decided disadvantage in the Assembly and state Senate.

Without immediate changes in the party’s leadership and public image, Firestone predicts that slide will continue.

“The challenge for the legitimate leadership of the Republican Party is to reconcile these two groups,” he said. “If we can do that, California will be better off. If we continue knocking heads, that may lead to one-party rule in California, and that would not be the Republican Party.”

Cornejo and Rodgers couldn’t agree more.

Cornejo, a mother of three and owner of a Santa Paula travel agency, sees her candidacy as an opportunity to heal long-standing wounds within the party.

If elected, Cornejo said, she would work to recruit more minorities--especially Latinos, because her husband is from Chile--and soccer moms to the party. Even if she loses, Cornejo said, her goal would be to start a Republican club focusing on that type of outreach. She said she would also continue her work with the committee, but would decline an invitation by Rodgers’ supporters to continue as secretary.

“I think in the end, we’re all after the same thing, which is to promote Republicans,” she said. “All this infighting doesn’t help. We are in a self-destruct mode if we continue.”

Minority outreach is also a top priority for Rodgers, a mother of two and a clerk with the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors.

She too would focus on getting committee members to set aside their ideological differences, making sure the panel steers clear of single-issue land mines--such as abortion--that play no part in the work at hand.

“We need to focus on getting Republicans elected to office, on registering Republicans and on raising funds for Republicans,” Rodgers said. “If that’s a right-wing conspiracy, that’s what it is. But let’s bring our party together and get to work.”