Grass-Roots Group Takes Fight to Cable

In a tiny editing room at the Ventura headquarters of CAPS-TV Channel 6, Will Thompson wages his low-budget battle of the airwaves.

Sitting in front of a shiny iMac computer, the 67-year-old retired airline pilot attempts to thread together the footage he has spent the last few weeks gathering, everything from town hall meetings to one-on-one front-porch interviews.

Much of the camera work is shaky. The sound is less than perfect. Transitions between clips are often abrupt.

But Thompson isn’t worried about that.

After all, the amateur 30-minute political advertisement he is producing, which premiered last week on Ventura’s community-access channel, is the essence of his grass-roots movement to defeat Measure A, the November ballot initiative that proposes 1,390 homes in the canyons and on the lower hillsides overlooking Ventura.

“My program’s going to look kind of rough and clumsy, but we think it might work toward our benefit, because [Measure A proponents] are going to inundate us with very good quality stuff,” said Thompson, a member of Ventura Citizens for Hillside Preservation. “We’re looking for any way at all that we can reach the public.”

Community television access, which costs Ventura residents just $25 a year for full use of top-notch equipment and unlimited air time, provided an opportunity.

Channel 6 reaches 27,000 city households seven days a week, and has tripled its hours of programming in the last few months, said Suz Montgomery-Hart, executive director.

Although the service has been available for three years, it is just starting to catch on, she said.

And Thompson’s project appears to be the first time the channel is being used as a venue for political ads.

“I think it’s great,” said Montgomery-Hart, who declined to say where she stands on Measure A. The channel does not censor content, nor does it check for accuracy of information.

“I love politics,” she said, “and I like seeing this kind of free expression.”

In battling the measure, the citizens’ group is going up against a landowner partnership, Lloyd Properties, which has hired two marketing companies to produce slick mailers and professional television ads promoting its project.

The landowner wants to build six neighborhoods, two of which would include small retail centers, in exchange for donating 3,050 acres of hillside land as public open space.

The plan also calls for 25 miles of new trails and a 32-acre city park.

Opponents are worried about the proposed project’s environmental effects--primarily the extra traffic it would cause--but have fewer resources to get out their message, they say.

Financial statements filed last week show that Lloyd Properties has outspent its opponents by more than 100 to 1.

“It’s classic David versus Goliath,” said Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett. “All we have is people’s passion.”

Supporters of Measure A, however, say the opposition is trying to gain sympathy by pointing out disparities in campaign spending.

A message based on fear -- not on actual fact -- is a less expensive one to get out, said Jim Anderson, project manager.

Measure A opponents also have an influential county supervisor on their side, Anderson said, as well as the nonprofit arm of Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources, which fights general growth issues throughout the county.

That group, for example, paid for a San Francisco law firm that helped SOAR in its attempt to prevent Measure A from appearing on the ballot.

“This whole ‘woe is me’ thing is bluster,” Anderson said.

But Thompson maintains that without the community-access option, his group could never hope to rival the landowners’ television air time.

He wants to create a series of 30-minute segments, each focusing on a different aspect of the initiative, including traffic, schools and the environment.

Thompson will act as moderator, introducing the show and providing periodic comments throughout.

The 35-year Ventura resident admits he is not technically inclined. He has an old Macintosh computer and a VCR at home, and that’s about it. But with the help of mentors offered by the community-access channel, Thompson is now a reasonably adept cameraman, editor and producer.

When the Measure A debate is over, Thompson said he may start a talk show focusing on local politics modeled after “The Charlie Rose Show” on PBS.

“If you had told me a long time ago that I’d be doing this,” he said, “I would not have believed you.”