Costly D.A. Race, Board Contests Fail to Excite Electorate

Despite a million-dollar district attorney’s race and two prickly contests for seats on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, election officials are projecting a ho-hum 40% turnout for Tuesday’s off-year primary election.

The battle to replace retiring Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury is the costliest ever for a local seat. Two supervisorial races could decide whether the board gets more aggressive in a growing land conservation movement and whether sheriff’s deputies win a rich new retirement benefit.

But even with meaty issues at stake, county elections chief Bruce Bradley predicted just 154,000 of 385,000 registered voters will go to the polls because there are no hot-button initiatives or national contests to draw them out.

“Statewide, the Republicans have a race for governor. That might generate some interest there,” Bradley said. “But if you look at the rest of the ticket, most of the partisan offices are unopposed. To get turnout up, you have to reach the people who are not regular voters and I don’t see that happening.”

As the final days of the campaign wind down, candidates for the three high-profile county seats are keeping a hectic pace.

District attorney candidates Ron Bamieh and Greg Totten were planning to unleash a final volley of mailers and television ads in a last-minute push to sway voters. Totten said he was bracing for a barrage of negative hit pieces after Bamieh’s war chest, bankrolled by his wealthy father, swelled to more than $1 million last week.

But Bamieh insisted he will stay above the fray and criticized his opponent for slinging mud.

Meanwhile, businessman Randy Hoffman and Thousand Oaks Councilwoman Linda Parks, who are facing off for the Thousand Oaks-based 2nd District supervisor’s seat, kept busy with get-out-the-vote efforts while they fended off negative charges in campaign mailers.

In the other supervisor’s race, incumbent Judy Mikels scheduled back-to-back campaign stops to rally supporters while her opponent for the Simi Valley-based 4th District seat, fraud investigator John Lane, was sprinting to knock on hundreds of doors before Tuesday.

In addition to state races and propositions, Ventura County voters will decide a number of local measures. Voters in Fillmore are being asked to back a $15-per-year parcel tax to cover the cost of maintaining a proposed public swimming pool.

Moorpark will vote on a $33-million school bond issue to renovate schools and upgrade technology in the classroom. Countywide, the Ventura County Community College District is seeking approval for a $356-million bond issue to repair and build classrooms, libraries and other facilities.

County voters will also be asked to reaffirm an existing business tax for unincorporated areas. Supervisors had approved the tax, which adds about $1.2 million to county government’s treasury each year, but a court decision requires that it be placed before voters.

Six candidates will face off in the contest to replace Clerk-Recorder Richard Dean, who is retiring after 20 years in office. Vying for the post are county Board of Education member Yvonne Gallegos Bodle, Oxnard City Clerk Daniel Martinez, former county Republican Chairwoman Jackie Rodgers, financial executive John Reid, assistant recorder Phil Schmit and attorney Michael Wesner.

Assistant Treasurer-Tax Collector Larry Matheney is expected to step up to the top job at the end of the year, replacing retiring Treasurer-Tax Collector Harold S. Pittman. Matheney’s expected opponent, former Thousand Oaks Councilman Mike Markey, withdrew from the race last month but his name will still appear on the ballot.

This primary season has been marked by fewer candidates raising more money--a departure from tradition.

In years past, county government’s most powerful offices have drawn three or four candidates, forcing the top vote-getters to face off in a general election. But the district attorney and supervisors’ contests this year offer just two candidates each, despite the fact that in two races the incumbent is stepping down.

At the same time, fund-raising has reached record levels.

The $1.4-million district attorney’s contest is the most expensive ever for a county seat--and possibly for any district attorney’s office in similar-sized counties statewide. The bulk was raised by Bamieh with help from his father, San Mateo businessman and frequent GOP contributor Sam Bamieh.

The senior Bamieh gave his son $993,000--virtually all of the $1.07 million the candidate has raised to date. Totten has raised about $400,000 from hundreds of contributors.

As the election nears, the two candidates have kept a frantic pace to reach out to voters--appearing at 32 forums across the county. They have also unleashed a barrage of slick mailers and television ads in recent days that have stirred controversy.

In a mailer sent last week, Totten attacked Bamieh’s “never lost a felony case” campaign slogan, which has played repeatedly on TV and radio ads. The Totten brochure identifies 10 criminal cases that Bamieh lost and suggests the prosecutor can’t be trusted to tell the truth.

But eight of the so-called loser cases named in Totten’s mailers are misdemeanors Bamieh handled as a first-year prosecutor. The other two are felonies. One was reversed on appeal and the other resulted in a dismissal after the jury deadlocked.

“It’s negative, its mean-spirited,” Bamieh said. “He says things that are intentionally false.”

Despite Bamieh’s vows to stay positive, a Totten campaign strategist predicted Bamieh will sling mud this weekend.

“We expect the unprecedented amounts of money Sam [Bamieh] is funneling into the county will pay for some very negative last-minute campaigning,” strategist Debra Creadick said. Creadick said she hopes Bamieh’s big spending will backfire by offending voters.

“Ventura County voters are very smart and over and over again we hear from people that they find this kind of spending outrageous,” Creadick said. “This is not a county where you can waltz in and drop a million dollars and buy a seat. People won’t stand for it.”

While the district attorney’s race has dominated headlines, the two supervisorial contests are also being closely watched.

At stake are decisions on how the county will grow, including how aggressively county supervisors move to create an open-space district that would buy up land and development rights, and whether the board will back away from its earlier approval of the 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch development.

The election’s outcome is also expected to influence contract negotiations with the union representing sheriff’s deputies. If union-backed candidates win, the board would very likely come under greater pressure to settle outstanding contract issues.

In the 2nd District, Hoffman is backed by much of Thousand Oaks’ business establishment while Parks, a longtime slow-growth advocate, is backed by residents who favor putting the brakes on nearly all development.

Fund-raising records have also fallen in this race, fueled largely by big contributions to Hoffman’s campaign. The former CEO of technology giant Magellan Systems has raised $450,000, including $91,000 from developer and Dole Foods CEO David H. Murdock.

Parks, meanwhile, has limited donations to $500 per individual and raised about $106,000.

Parks’ supporters accuse the Hoffman camp of orchestrating a smear campaign, including Parks’ recent censure by the Thousand Oaks City Council for allegedly violating public meeting laws. Supervisor Steve Bennett has come to Parks’ defense in recent days, saying he decided to speak up “to try to level the playing field.”

“It’s unfair when you have one person limiting her contributions and then being outspent by someone who is taking very large contributions,” said Bennett, a coauthor of the county’s popular SOAR growth-control initiatives. “She’s independent of developer money and her record of fighting inappropriate perks is solid.... Usually I’m pretty cautious about endorsing candidates. But this one I feel strongly about.”

Parks last week suggested that Assemblyman Tony Strickland (R-Moorpark), a Hoffman supporter, was funneling more developer money into Hoffman’s campaign through a Strickland-controlled committee. Strickland recently received a $25,000 contribution from builder Miller Brothers Investments, and the next day gave a $10,000 loan to Hoffman.

Hoffman said Strickland had pledged to give him $20,000 and was merely fulfilling that promise. Hoffman said he didn’t know whether the cash came from Miller or other contributors to Strickland, chairman of the Assembly Republican Caucus.

“That position enables you to raise money,” Hoffman said. “Where he gets his contributions, I don’t track that. But Linda is one who sees a conspiracy behind every door.”