Only if they are Republicans.

Not totally true ML.

Democrat incumbent and ex-Vice Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman was defeated in his democratic primary and Cynthia McKinney lost as well.

But, yes, many republicans should be in fear of losing their seats as they've grown the size of government, had a major corruption scnadal, and have had to make tough choices on national security.

All Democrats have had to do is sit back and snipe much like republicans did in the lead up to 1994.

I'd say if democrats can't win back the house and senate in this environment they are pretty pathetic.

Both these Democrats lost their primaries, within their own party. McKinney is a maverick who has lost before, and Lieberman may go on to win as an Independent.

Don't you think most -- running the political gamut -- see the Republican party as having lost touch with what Americans want from government: whether large or small, they want it to work? Katrina, Iraq, the ballooning deficit, and corruption scandals are squarely on the shoulders of the Republican majority. How that translates to local races is hard to say. The growing DTS registration even in the Republican hotbed of east Ventura County suggests that it is suffering base shrinkage in a major way. Lieberman and McKinney aside, don't you think that signals bad news for incumbent Republicans?

Cathy Carlson from TO here: Brian, have you taken a look at CVUSD candidate and incumbent Tim Stephens' website? It was posted for a month with at least 7 mistakes. I scanned a copy and sent it around. Stephens finally was told about his gaffs by gadfly Nick Quidwai. Otherwise, it would have gone all the way to November with mistakes such as misspelling "elementary, responsive, incumbent," and also his wife's name. He called Carol "Carl"

Note that he put Linda Parks down as an endorser. Linda has written to me and others saying that she told him to take it off. He won't. Funny, it only took him minutes to rip down his website after Uncle Nick contacted him about the mistakes, but its been a week since Stephens has dragged his feet and left Linda's name up. Dan DelCampo did this to Linda 4 years ago and she let him have it! Let's watch the fireworks on this one.

Also, note the misreprentation of a federal award by Stephens. He writes that there are 8 National Blue Ribbon Schools in town. No, most are No Child Left Behing-Blue Ribbon awards. The National Blue Ribbon was dumped as ineffective in 2002. Also note that he brags about his old school, Meadows, as being the first National Blue Ribbon, but fails to mention that it was ranked dead last in May on similar school rankings--a one out of 10. This means the houses are over-priced for the amount of education those kids showed on their API scores. That hurts Stephens because he is a real estate broker. Remember, Stephens is the one who said he "created" the California Top 100 school award. That's right, created. There is no such award from Sacramento. He put that on his candidate's statement 8 years ago, and I shamed him into removing it at the last election. All 10 signs were taken down by Bob Fraisse, since they are bogus. Are you at all surprised that Stephen now misreprents the number of National Blue Ribbon Schools in the Conejo? He needs to remove that claim when he fixes his website by purging Linda's name from his endorsements.

Also, is Chuck Weis really endorsing him, and did Jack O'Connell write him an endorsement? Weis wrote me a letter saying that there is no such official award as a California Top 100 School, and that in his opinion, no school should have its merits judged based on such a sign out front. Maybe Chuck Weis will ALSO be asking for his name to come down.

Besides Mike Dunn who should we vote for in CVUSD?

Should it be called Christmas break in honor of the majority of voters or should it be "WINTER BREAK"?

Cathy C here: Ivan, I am going to vote for Mike Dunn, John Andersen, and Greg Lennox--all financial guys. John Andersen has been a frequent speaker at CVUSD board meetings, and has asked many financially sophisticated questions. Remember, the CVUSD is the largest school district in Ventura County with an annual budget of $223M. Greg Lennox is extremely wealthy, having just sold his business that made something about reclining aircraft seats. Mike was a former Morgan Stanley stockbroker, an elected member to the Ventura County Republican Central Committee. He knows the Ed Code, the Government Code, and the Brown Act.

I will not be supporting Tim Stephens. He has been untruthful about past awards, even claiming to have "created" the California Top 100 School award. He has been untruthful about the academics here, saying that the CVUSD is "second to none", when in fact 1/3 of our schools failed to make the state minimum 3 years ago. He has voted for "curb appeal"--his words from a Star article last year. He called Mike Dunn "toxic" when in fact Mike voted nearly 300 times in harmony with the board, and only voted 6 times no, and twice abstained.

I won't vote for Pat Phelps. Nice lady, a multi-millionaire and a former math teacher. However, she called for a vote on an item that wasn't agendized this year. It was the California State School Board's proclamation against the Governor that candidate Peggy Buckles rushed up to the Board during public comments. That is highly, highly illegal. Pat should have known better, as she has been on for several years. Also, she is on the Board of the County PTA. I'm not voting for ANY PTA person. They are an arm of the teachers' union, and the NEA, the National Educators Association. The PTA is a lobbying group. But the California PTA refused to oppose Sen Sheila Kuhl's LGBT bill this year which would have forced teachers to give lessons in LGBT social contributions starting in 1st grade. The rest of America has given the political PTA the boot. Only in Southern California is it strong. Why do you think 75% of American schools are now PTA free? (See the WSJ article, "Losing the P in PTA" 2/14/06.)

Peggy Buckles won't get my vote. She is a registered Republican, yet I watched her applaud every speaker for gay marriage last summer. She sat next to Board members of the DCCV who called us Nazi and hissed during public comments. Then I watched her and other PTA officers shake hands with EVERY Board member that voted for the gay marriage sex ed textbook. Also, Peggy supported the CSSBA proclamation against the Governor, and she opposed the increase to teacher's probation to 5 years, but the majorit of citizens here supported lengthening teacher tenure time to 5 years on the job. She is always pro-union. What kind of Republican is that? She would always cave into the union if she were elected

John Short may be the President of TOLL, but he won't get my vote for CVUSD Trustee. Maybe he is the salt of the Earth, but he has never been to a school board meeting or written an education letter to the editor. He hasn't bothered with a website, so we can't find out his platform. He just got endorsed by the union. That writes him off in my book.

Tim Penix also won't get my vote. He's only been to school board a couple of times. He also hasn't bothered with a website, nor has he written any letters to the editor, or posted any education blogs. He has been the President of the Sequoia PTA for 2 years. That was the school I busted last year for buying a $2,000 cappucino maker for their staff lounge by having kids do car washes. Tsk, tsk. Guess where Tim has his PTA meetings? In the staff lounge!!