GOP Divided Over Central Committee Candidates

Ventura County Republicans are waging a particularly aggressive battle as the March 7 primary election approaches. And their opponents are each other.

On one side is conservative Assemblyman Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks), who supports a group of candidates that includes his wife, mother and three of his staff members.

On the other side is Central Committee Vice Chairman Bob Larkin of Simi Valley, who is part of the committee’s moderate majority that will field a slate of its own.

Not since the bitter ideological battles of 1992, have so many local Republicans run for the party’s county Central Committee. There are 41 candidates for 22 seats this time.

“The war’s on again,” said Bruce Bradley, county elections chief.

To at least some degree, the current debate represents the conservative-moderate split in the GOP throughout the state and nation.

Larkin, a former committee chairman, says it’s a chasm prompted by the aggressive right-wing politics of Strickland and other conservatives.

“Apparently, Tony Strickland has decided to take over the county Republican Central Committee,” Larkin said Wednesday. “He’s running a slate of far-right candidates. . . . They make the party look like it’s anti-women, anti-gay, anti-immigrant and anti-minority. And that can’t be good.”

Strickland said he isn’t backing a slate of strictly conservative candidates. He said he is supporting numerous candidates--including some minorities, women and moderates--because they are working hard for the party locally. Indeed, records show that county Republican registration is up 3,856 since Labor Day, about 1,500 more than the increase among Democrats.

“I don’t ask them if they’re conservative or moderate,” Strickland said. “They are Republicans, that’s all. This is just people who have been active in the party and want to run. If they’re walking districts and urging people to register to vote, that’s good. I encourage more people to get involved in the process.”

County GOP committee Chairman Paul Leavens, who is moderate, is among those whom Strickland has endorsed for reelection. Strickland said Leavens is doing a good job, and he doesn’t care if he is a moderate or not.

In 1992, Leavens and Larkin were insurgent leaders when moderates unseated Republican conservatives to regain control of the county committee. But this time Leavens says he is of two minds.

“They are the right wing,” Leavens said of Strickland and his close followers. “But I’m sympathetic with Tony, because we’re the best of friends. And he’s working hard at maintaining rapport with mainstream Republicans. I haven’t seen anything that would jeopardize that other than this. But now we’re having to run a campaign and put money into it that should have been spent defeating Democrats.”

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Leavens said he disagrees with Strickland’s anti-abortion position. But as a member of the National Rifle Assn., Leavens said he agrees with Strickland’s opposition to more gun-control laws.

“I consider myself a Strickland guy on most things,” Leavens said. “But still a mainstream Republican.”

Yet Leavens said he doesn’t like Strickland’s activity in the current Central Committee races. And he is supporting the effort of the current committee majority to retain its seats.

“We’re going to put out several slate mailers, and they’ll probably be doing some of the same,” Leavens said.

Strickland said he won’t spend any of his campaign money on such activities. And Strickland’s chief of staff, Joel Angeles, said that Larkin and Leavens are wrong when they say money raised by the Strickland-backed Alliance for Freedom will support the Central Committee efforts.

Strickland insists that he isn’t involved in a power play. He said he is supporting candidates who have asked for his support.

“There’s no Strickland slate,” he said. “Issues like abortion have never come up. This is only about electing more Republicans. I agree with Bob Larkin, we need to get more minorities involved and more women involved. We need more diversity.”

Strickland notes that he supports two African Americans from Oxnard for Central Committee--Dr. William Anderson and Jackie Rodgers, both incumbents.

“I would characterize [candidates with his support] as a lot of people who have been involved in the party for years,” he said.

Strickland is supporting the candidacy of his mother, Toni Strickland of Ventura, and his wife, Audra Strickland of Moorpark, and the campaigns of three members of his Assembly or reelection staffs--Chris Wangsaporn, Kristy Weber and Tim Anaya.

Strickland said his mom and wife are two of the most experienced local Republicans he knows: his mother from years of door-to-door campaigning and his wife is a former Republican Assembly staffer in Sacramento. It’s good, he said, to bring new blood, and young blood, into the process.

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But Larkin said the turmoil is a disruption local Republicans don’t need. He recalled the bitter days of 1992, when then-Central Committee Chairman Bill Jones, a Simi Valley conservative, even had sympathetic words for former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

“He left the committee nearly bankrupt,” Larkin said. “Now we’re wasting money again.”

The local Republican committee had $10,000 in the bank last Christmas, and expected to raise $8,000 more with a fund-raising letter in January. Instead, its members are asking for money to defend their seats, he said.

“So no matter who wins we’re going to be broke in March,” Larkin said, “instead of having $15,000 to $20,000 in the bank to spend on helping candidates in the general election.”