Scandal Provides Backdrop for Voters’ Decision on 3 Seats

Ventura County voters, peppered with last-minute appeals, go to the polls Tuesday to pick three county supervisors in races dominated by an embarrassing scandal that raised questions about the quality of leadership and fiscal responsibility at the county Hall of Administration.

Also on the ballot are four contested primary races for the state Legislature and U.S. Congress, including a bare-knuckles fight between Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) and Supervisor Judy Mikels--ideological opposites who want to replace retiring state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley).

The final days of the campaigns have been punctuated by a flurry of spending as candidates in most races touted their best qualities, but some also appealed to the emotions of voters through mailers or newspaper advertisements.

For instance, Ventura City Councilman Jim Monahan weighed in with a large ad supporting the anti-gay-marriage Proposition 22, saying he is the only Ventura official publicly supporting it and declaring his 1st District supervisorial opponent, educator Steve Bennett, “wouldn’t tell.”

In Oxnard, supervisorial candidate Francisco Dominguez was forced to rebuff charges delivered anonymously in a plain-brown envelope that he had lied about graduating from college. A check showed Dominguez finished all classes necessary for a bachelor’s degree, but the paperwork had not been completed. Incumbent Supervisor John Flynn said he knew nothing about the tip.

And in Camarillo, Supervisor Kathy Long, buffeted by accusations she was a principal architect of Ventura County’s budget problems, responded with attacks that challenger Mike Morgan was responsible for a similar fiasco as a Camarillo councilman. Morgan said the 1987 Camarillo investment debacle was transacted behind the council’s back by the city treasurer.

The quarter-page ad by Monahan, a conservative businessman, prompted a quick response by Bennett, a coauthor of the SOAR anti-sprawl initiatives.

“I think it’s unfortunate that some candidates think they have to attack, particularly on issues that have nothing to do with county government,” Bennett said. “He’s bringing up wedge issues because he doesn’t have any good county issues.”

Monahan said his focus on Proposition 22 is legitimate, because so many voters have raised the issue with him. He said he believes Bennett’s position on the measure, which limits marriage to men and women, would indicate his overall character.

“I just think that people need to know the type of people they are electing,” said Monahan, who received a late contribution of $2,200 from Edward Atsinger III of Camarillo, owner of a chain of Christian radio stations. “Your character is important.”

Bennett and Monahan are in a hotly contested three-way race with businesswoman Rosa Lee Measures, a former Ventura councilwoman with backing from the Ventura Chamber of Commerce, Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury and Sheriff Bob Brooks.

Monahan also has strong business backing, while Bennett is supported by environmentalists and numerous labor unions.

The 1st District, which encompasses Ventura and much of the Ojai Valley, has been represented by retiring Supervisor Susan Lacey for 20 years.

The Long-Morgan race in the Camarillo-based 3rd District is marked by recent claims of fiscal mismanagement.

A Morgan flier chastises Long, to whom he lost in 1996, for voting to merge the county’s welfare and mental health agencies in 1998. That action indirectly resulted in a federal audit that disclosed improper Medicare billing practices that will cost the county at least $23 million.

Morgan asks voters to “bring financial stability back to Ventura County.”

Long, whose $88,000 in donations is four times Morgan’s contribution tally, mentions her opponent only sparingly in her six mailers. She focuses mostly on her record as a supervisor in a sprawling district that includes the Rincon, Ojai and Santa Clara valleys, Camarillo and part of Newbury Park. And she cites her backing from a wide variety of groups--from labor unions to law enforcement.

But she notes it was during Morgan’s tenure that Camarillo had its own financial crisis.

“The councilman’s own city lost more than $25 million during his early years in office when council members didn’t know their own finances,” a Long mailer states. “That’s an experience we can’t afford to repeat.”

A third candidate, retired businessman Jim Shinn, has run a low-key campaign.

In Flynn’s Oxnard-based 5th District, where fund-raising is relatively modest, candidates have generally been on good behavior.

Flynn has focused on his accomplishments during 24 years in office, while Dominguez, an Oxnard schools trustee, has cited his leadership of El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, a social service group in Oxnard.

But both Dominguez and Port Hueneme Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Arlene Fraser, who is challenging Flynn for a third time, have criticized Flynn for the image-tarnishing scandals that have plagued county government in recent months.

But neither candidate has been harsh in criticizing the veteran incumbent, saying only they think it’s time for a change.

*

As the state legislative campaigns pushed toward a climax, candidates who first stressed their own virtues began to spotlight their opponents’ warts.

In the state Senate race to replace Wright, spending soared as hard-hitting fliers arrived at voters’ mailboxes.

A McClintock mailer was titled: “How Judy Mikels led Ventura County to a financial meltdown during the greatest economic expansion in history.” And it concluded: “With Judy Mikels at the helm, is it any wonder her county teeters on the brink of financial collapse?”

McClintock quoted a taxpayer advocate as saying Mikels turned a blind eye as Ventura County “went down the tube.”

What it did not say is that Mikels voted against the 1998 mental health merger that indirectly triggered federal audits leading to the county’s fiscal problems. And she has been a leader in acting to balance the county budget.

Mikels, meanwhile, is using a willing accomplice--Cathie Wright--to attack McClintock.

Wright has spent more than $50,000 to hammer her longtime adversary in four mailers that stress McClintock’s residence in Sacramento, not Northridge, where he is registered to vote, and his maverick tendencies.

“Tom McClintock isn’t a leader. He’s a rubber stamp,” said the most recent Wright-backed mailer, “against nearly every measure in the state Assembly--even common sense measures to create better and safer schools, increase public safety and improve health care.”

McClintock has said he is proud of his independence, because his votes regularly save taxpayers money. And he has cited his leadership on such issues as the 35% vehicle license cut and the efforts of the San Fernando Valley to secede from Los Angeles.

*

The 19th Senate District includes most of Ventura County and parts of the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

In a contested Democratic primary, 37th District rivals Jon Sharkey, heavily backed by local leaders, and Roz McGrath, her campaign funded mostly by Assembly Democrats, have kept it clean in mailers by not mentioning each other at all.

Sharkey said he wants voters focused on his record on such local issues as planning and growth. He is backed by a number of local environmentalists, including backers of the SOAR anti-sprawl initiatives, and elected officials, including Supervisor Flynn and the mayors of Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo.

“I’m not doing any negative mailing. I don’t see any need to do so,” he said. “I think she’s really wrong on some things, but I don’t have anything against her.”

Still, he calls McGrath a “born again” environmentalist, who opposed SOAR.

McGrath, who narrowly lost to Assemblyman Tony Strickland (R-Moorpark) in 1998, has focused on her experience as a farmer, teacher and small-businesswoman. And state Democratic leaders have vowed to spend $500,000 to $1 million to help her against Strickland. They have thrown in $45,000 so far in the primary, citing her high name recognition as a member of a pioneer farming family.

“I’ve run a clean campaign, and I’ve had very good support from local folks,” McGrath said, citing endorsements from Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), who represents Thousand Oaks in Congress. “But I’d be the first to endorse Jonathan if he should win.”

*

In the two-county 38th District, the campaign has turned nasty in a race by three Republicans who hope to replace McClintock in the Assembly.

Norm Walker, McClintock’s former chief of staff and a stridently anti-abortion member of the Simi Valley school board, is running against Northridge physician Keith Richman and businessman and former Chamber of Commerce President Ross B. Hopkins of Canoga Park.

Richman, who had raised $550,000, most of it his own money, has attacked Walker’s record as a school trustee.

“Norm Walker spends money like a Democrat,” stated a Richman mailer, referring to Walker’s role in buying out the contract of a former Simi Valley schools superintendent he had picked.

And Walker has depicted Richman as a lifelong Democrat before turning liberal Republican in 1993, and a contributor to Democratic races.

Richman, Walker contends in a mailer, has said he would have “voted with Democrats on legislation forcing groups such as Boy Scouts and private Christian schools to hire openly Homosexual leaders and teachers or face massive Penalties.”

Walker had raised only $52,000 to spread his message, but over the past nine days at least $90,000 has flowed in, nearly all from conservative groups.

Walker’s recent contributions include about $6,000 from the Gun Owners of California, $12,000 from McClintock, $12,200 from the California Republican Assembly and $35,000 from the California Independent Business PAC, a group run by wealthy businessmen, including radio station owner Atsinger.

*

Although only marginally contested, the Democratic race to determine who challenges seven-term Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) this fall has produced a spate of mailers by attorney Michael Case.

Case, president of the Ventura County Bar Assn., has used his primary campaign against political unknown Albert Goldberg, a Ventura real estate broker, to jump-start his fall campaign against Gallegly.

In mailers targeting a variety of audiences, Case has spent more than $50,000 to stress his qualifications and good deeds--such as donated time and money to schools, hospitals and groups such as the American Cancer Society.

Gallegly, who holds a 5-1 fund-raising lead, has pressed forward himself with letters of endorsement from Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth and former Assemblyman Nao Takasugi.

And in a twist that reflects the Republican presidential campaign, the conservative Gallegly is promoting himself as a reformer. “Here’s Your Chance For Real Reform,” proclaims a Gallegly mailer, citing his support for a campaign finance reform bill in the House.

Case’s response is that Gallegly is misleading the public, because he voted for an amendment that would have kept unlimited “soft money”--donations given to parties and not directly to candidates--within the political system.

“The only thing Elton Gallegly is reforming is his election-year image,” Case spokesman Jonathan Brown said.

Gallegly said he doesn’t know what Brown is talking about. “The fact remains that I voted for the bill in its current form and I was a co-sponsor of the legislation.”

Also on Tuesday’s ballot is Measure F, a countywide initiative that would allow St. Joseph’s Health and Retirement Center near Ojai to build an $8-million wing on farmland. SOAR growth-control laws require voters’ approval of projects proposed for agricultural land or open space areas.

In Santa Paula, voters will be asked to approve Measure D, a school bond that would raise $10 million to renovate seven elementary schools. If the bond passes, the average homeowner would pay an extra $3.19 per month per $100,000 of assessed value.

And in Fillmore, voters will decide Measure E, a bond initiative that would provide $7.5 million to build a new elementary school and repair existing campuses.

The bond would require the average homeowner to pay an additional $3.66 per month per $100,000 of assessed value.