( An old attack ad against Tom McClintock. Notice the first newspaper quoted is from 1977. I am glad I am not quoted going back that far!)
I don't write much about Tom McClintock ( R- Not Here) because he isn't from Ventura County anymore. Of course, his legal residence is in Thousand Oaks, but he admits he doesn't actually live there. He works in the state capitol so he moved his family up there. That makes sense. But now his term is up he is running for a House of Representative seat up north.
But he isn't running from the district where he is currently living either.
He is running to replace John Doolittle ( California's 4th district), who is retiring with scandals tarnishing his reputation. He had ties to convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and he paid his wife to raise money for him. Maybe that doesn't sound bad to you but that means their family got a cut of every check that came from a special interest trying to influence him. If more Republicans, like Tom McClintock, would have been critical earlier about the Republican lobbying scandal they would have done better in the last 2006 congressional elections.
Anyways, Tom McClintock won his primary, even though former Ventura County elected officials like Greg Stratton and Judy Mikels campaigned against him. The campaign is now between Tom McClintock and Charlie Brown.
Click here for Tom McClintock's website.
Click here for Charlie Brown's website.
The campaign against Tom McClintock is coming to Ventura County tonight and they want to hear from you. To see the details click on continue reading.
Do you think it matters where Tom McClintock is from? Does he show that maybe we should move from district level representation?
Are you proud of Tom McClintock's record here in Ventura County?
I know he has been a vocal advocate for conservative causes but as far as representing Ventura County it is clear to me he has been too busy running for other offices. I don't remember him doing many public events in Ventura County.
I don't even have many categories to include him in.
( A campaign ad from Tom McClintock's campaign.)
Dear Brian,
Although most of us haven't seen him in town for years, Tom McClintock is from Thousand Oaks. Now he's running for Congress 400 miles north of here. The folks from Charlie Brown's campaign, he's the Democrat running against him who almost won last time, will be here tomorrow to hear what McClintock's home town folks think of him. Read the details below.
If you haven't had a chance to talk to Hannah-Beth Jackson yet, or if you know someone who hasn't but should, there's a special opportunity to see her in Thousand Oaks tomorrow evening.
Tom
You'll have the chance to tell the voters of California's 4th Congressional District tomorrow. They don't know him like we do.
If you're going to be in Thousand Oaks from around noon to 6:00PM tomorrow, Tuedsay, August 19th you can help Charlie Brown send Tom McClintock back to where ever it is he lives, because we know it isn't here.
Contact Alex Krasov at akrasov@gmail.com or call her at 510-303-1842.
The point is that Tom McClintock's politics and values are in line with people from the 4th District. It doesn't matter where he was born, and voters have already demonstarted this in the primary when Tom beat former congressman Doug Ose. This event is a waste of time, and people in and around Ventura County should show support for Tom and all he has done for his constituents in southern Cal.
Brian,
I just spent a delightful 15 minutes with Alex Krasov recording what I thought of Senator McClintock's legislative accomplishments. Trouble is, I couldn't speak to any because McClintock hasn't felt it necessary to inform Ventura County as to what they are. No town meetings, no door-to-door walking, no phone calls, no glossy mailers. He's been on the public dole way too long. I have often been to the building that houses his TO headquarters, and the huge picture of him in the lobby must be 20 years old!
I did hear quite a bit about how well Charlie Brown's campaign is going. His stances on gun rights and other issues important to Republicans show that he clearly resonates with his future constituents. Saying that the voters identify more with McClintock's ultra-right wing ideology is a line straight from Tom Hudson. I'm not saying it will be easy. Heaven knows McClintock is high-profile since he's run for just about every state office there is! However, I think the 4th District is smart enough not to be bamboozled by our absentee State Senator. I've been told McClintock won't even register in the 4th District so he can vote for himself. What does that say about him?
McClintock can't register in the 4th district to vote for himself because then he will lose his Senate seat and all the freebies, perks and per-deims (tens of thousands of dollars a year)that come with pretending he lives in Ventura County.
One can only wonder what could happen to the average voter who lives in this district, but who registered and voted as if they were in the 4th district?
Go Charlie Go!
Right on.
I didn't think about the funny fact that Tom McClintock won't be voting for himself.
It would make a great story if he lost by a just a few votes.
Obviously I wasn't the target audience for that Garamendi ad, since those quotes generally sounded to me like good reasons to vote for Tom for Lt. Governor. Too bad he got capsized by the Democratic tidal wave in 2006; he'd have provided a valuable counterpoint to Arnold right now in the midst of this wholly-predictable budget crisis (which Tom has been predicting and warning against for years).
I do think it's pretty strange that anyone opposed to Tom's Congressional bid would bother to waste time in Ventura County. Do they really think that's going to have any significant effect? It seems like the time and money could be much better spent in the 4th Congressional District. Why aren't these people wearing out their shoe leather going door-to-door on behalf of Charlie Brown? My guess is that personal contact with 4th District voters, via either precinct walking or telephoning, would gain many more votes than anything that happens 400 miles away.
They were here to raise money and to get activists from Ventura County to support Charlie Brown.
They also came to get quotes from elected officials and community leaders that opposed him. Judy Mikels ,Greg Stratton, and other Ventura County leaders campaigned against him in the primary.
http://www.politickerca.com/tags/greg-stratton
Tom always had a strained relationship with local government officials, especially the Simi Valley City Council, since he refused to fulfill the normal role of an Assembly member or State Senator of bringing home the goods, or at least of introducing and supporting special legislative bills which localities were requesting. That's because Tom was leading the charge against higher state spending and taxes and regulations, so he would have been hypocritical to make an exception for his own district.
I'm sure that Judy and Greg and others are quite sincere in believing that Tom therefore did a bad job of representing his district. I expect him to do an equally bad job of bringing back the pork from Washington after he's elected to the 4th Congressional District. If pork is what the voters there want (and indeed that was a large part of Ose's campaign theme), then Tom is definitely not their man.
However, as an outside observer of the Ventura Republican Party, it still seems to me that a lot of this infighting just represents the long-time split between factions. It goes all the way back to the blow-up between Ed Davis and Bobbi Fiedler when they were running for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, and Davis wore a wire to try to get incriminating evidence against Fiedler. It destroyed both their political careers, and it created lasting bitterness between their respective supporters. Over twenty years later the repercussions have not entirely died down.
The current county Republican Party just uses the Simi old-timers bitterness over the past to gain the last few votes it needs to do the bidding of Tony Strickland and Elton ("lock down")Gallegly.
Most of the current committee didn't even know Ed Davis or Bobbi Fiedler, but Simi dominated politics have left this whole county wounded.
another observer: "The current county Republican Party just uses the Simi old-timers bitterness over the past to gain the last few votes it needs to do the bidding of Tony Strickland and Elton ("lock down")Gallegly."
That's a very strange comment, considering that Tony and Elton are on opposite sides of the fence. In fact, there was considerable speculation that one of the reasons Elton reversed course about retiring from Congress was that he didn't want Tony to succeed him.