Murdock Returns to the Arena

The last time billionaire David Murdock got involved in local politics, it ignited a grand jury probe of his closest ally on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and helped end her political career.

After lying low for a decade, the 78-year-old Dole Food Co. chief and Republican financier is back on the scene. He is motivated, he says, because he recently moved from Los Angeles County to a home near Thousand Oaks.

Murdock, the developer of the exclusive Lake Sherwood community, has poured more than $128,000 into the campaigns of two candidates in the March 5 supervisorial race, prompting opponents to call for contribution limits.

Murdock has given $91,000 to entrepreneur Randy Hoffman, a candidate for an open seat representing the Conejo Valley, and $27,500 to the reelection campaign of Supervisor Judy Mikels, whose district includes Simi Valley, Moorpark and Somis.

He has also contributed $5,000 each to Sheriff Bob Brooks, who faces no opposition, and Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Greg Totten, who is locked in a tight contest to succeed his retiring boss. At the state level, Murdock has given $100,000 to Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard Riordan.

But it’s his involvement in county politics that has raised the most eyebrows, with detractors wondering what is motivating the billionaire developer to enter the political fray again.

At an invitation-only fund-raiser for Mikels this week at his gated Sherwood Country Club, Murdock took the podium and addressed the issue head-on.

“Everybody’s been asking me ... why have I been involving myself?” he said. “There isn’t really anything I want, except I want a good business climate.

“I am a devout, middle-of-the-road Republican,” Murdock added. “I thought we were getting more liberal and more liberal and more liberal all the time.”

He said he has watched in frustration over the years as businesses that should have opened in Ventura County chose Orange County instead because of the bureaucratic hurdles they faced.

“Some people think private enterprise has no right to say anything to government. I believe everyone in this room ought to be able to do whatever they want to do as long as they aren’t hurting anyone,” he said.

Murdock said he had hoped to move Dole headquarters to Ventura County in 1992, but was confronted with so many obstacles that he settled on a site a few miles away in Westlake Village, which is in Los Angeles County.

In an interview with The Times on Thursday, Murdock said he is building a hotel and spa in western Los Angeles County and has projects in the works throughout California. That includes the Bakersfield area, where state records show he has contributed to the campaigns of incumbent county supervisors and several Republican candidates for state Legislature.

But he denied that he had any development plans in Ventura County beyond the remainder of the 630 homes planned at Sherwood. Murdock was also quick to point out that he relocated 1,400 oak trees at Sherwood at great expense so as to minimize damage.

“I’m an environmentalist,” he said. “I’m a perfectionist.”

Murdock said that Dole’s farmland in the county would remain agricultural. He said he long ago dropped any plans to move the company’s produce through the Port of Hueneme. He recently signed a deal to ship through San Diego rather than Los Angeles.

“I have no ulterior motive,” he said of his involvement in local politics.

Thousand Oaks Councilwoman Linda Parks, Hoffman’s opponent in the supervisorial race, balks at Murdock’s assurances. “I don’t believe it,” she said. “Not for a second.”

Mikels’ opponent, John Lane, a fraud investigator for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office, echoed Parks’ comments. “I don’t think the average voter is that naive, not to think there’s a quid pro quo [involved in large donations to political candidates],” he said.

Hoffman and Mikels said their opponents are pandering to an audience that would like to stop all growth.

Murdock’s connections to the county date to the early 1980s, when he bought 1,900 acres around Lake Sherwood and set about filling the lake, which had become a mud flat. He envisioned an enclave for the super rich near his existing Arabian horse farm and weekend estate in Hidden Valley, and by 1987 he had county leaders on board.

Soon after, he hit a few snags involving permitting and maintenance of the lake. Then-Supervisor Madge Schaefer became Murdock’s close ally during these years, functioning as the county’s emissary on the Sherwood project.

In 1988, Murdock hosted a fund-raiser for her at his horse ranch, donating a pony that drew $4,000 at auction.

The following year, with some permits still pending on the Sherwood project, Murdock threw a barbecue at the ranch, inviting Schaefer and top planning and public works officials to thank them for their help.

A grand jury was convened to investigate impropriety. In mid-1990, Schaefer and other county officials were cleared of any wrongdoing but the grand jury recommended creation of an ethics panel to establish a code of conduct.

But the investigation made Schaefer increasingly vulnerable. She lost the election that year to 25-year-old slow-growth advocate Maria VanderKolk.

Growth remains a central theme in the current election. Parks, who campaigned for countywide growth controls, is among the county’s most prominent anti-sprawl advocates, while Hoffman, a millionaire businessman, has been careful to describe himself as a slow-growth candidate as well.

He officially opposes the 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch development at the county’s eastern edge. The project was approved in 1991 but has been stalled by a slew of lawsuits.

Hoffman praises Murdock’s Sherwood development as an asset to the community, however, and said he also admires Murdock’s status as chief of a company the size of Dole Foods.

Mikels said she has known Murdock for a couple of years, but has only once directly intervened on his behalf. At the time, she said, he was having technical problems with county officials over his horse ranch.

He wanted a lower horse-to-worker ratio than county regulations allowed. She felt his request was reasonable and helped get his problems ironed out, she said.

“He likes my style,” Mikels said. “I’m a Republican, obviously conservative, and what he told me is, now he’s going to take an interest in local government because he lives here and this is his government.”

Meanwhile, Murdock is somewhat amused by the interest generated by his reemergence on the local political scene. The international businessman, who is not yet registered to vote in Ventura County, seemed eager to put his critics at ease about his influence.

“In case someone thinks I want to run Ventura County,” he said, “I have no interest whatsoever.”