Oxnard Harbor Commissioner Jess Herrera will be announcing he is running for Congress in the new Ventura County based congressional district. I don't know when it will be official but he did request the paperwork to start a campaign.
There will now be five declared Democratic candidates and no declared Republicans.
Calitics has an interesting analysis of the district that shows it could be a swing district. Their analysis shows that Democrats have a registration advantage. I appreciate their work in collecting the data.
I am not sure how this changes the dynamics of the campaign. The most obvious impact is that David Cruz Thayne's plan to appeal to Latino voters just became harder. Steve Bennett also has another West County based elected official to compete with. The advantage might be to David Pollock of Moorpark.
Democrats should be excited to have so many top tier candidates with experience in politics.
I will post the official campaign announcement after it is made.
If Elton Gallegly does not run in this district he has made it harder for some Republicans to organize a campaign. Last time he made so many people wonder what he might do he declared his final intentions after it was too late for Tony Strickland to run because he had already filed for another office. The rumors I keep hearing is that Greg Totten might be a candidate if Gallegly is not.
The Star had a news article that wondered if Gallegly might run against fellow Republican Buck McKeon in another district that includes Simi Valley. McKeon hasn't been in Congress as long as Gallegly but he does have a more influential position as he is the Chair of a Committee.
A big question I have is which of the candidates is willing or able to put the most personal resources into the campaign. I don't know the relative wealth of each of the candidates.
For first time readers: You don't have to register or use your real name to comment but please keep it classy.
This is yet another good example of the Dims self-destructing in the primaries. David Pollock, a washed-up child actor with very little to offer this district, appears to be the front runner. To which I say -- Thanks again, Dims. You're making this too way easy though. We would love some small token of a challenge in this election.
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As an experienced elected official in a non-partisan office, Herrera has worked well with republicans & democrats throughout Ventura County. He may well be a formidable candidate.
Dems are lining up because they smell blood in the water, GOP blood! The GOP is gonna get wiped out big time come November after they tried to raise taxes on everyone! Now they are trying to elect that right wing nut job Santorum because they don't want to vote for a Mormon! Santorum was involved in big scandals like Newt! Looks like Obama is gonna win by at least 15 points! Its gonna be fun to watch old Newt spend the next 3 months ripping Romney apart! No wonder no one wants to be part of the GOP or tea party!
Keep dreaming, buddy. Trust me, the GOP has nothing against Romney's Mormon faith. What they do have a problem with is his history of supporting liberal causes and his left wing positions on some issues, as well as his flip-flopping on many of these issues.
Romney-care was enacted in Massachusetts while he was governor there, which is a carbon copy of Obama-care. As governor, he also appointed numerous liberal judges to the State judiciary, supported taxpayer-funded abortions, and advocated for a cap-and-trade program in Massachusetts.
Rick Santorum did better than anyone could have expected in the Iowa caucuses yesterday. He finished in a virtual dead-heat with the winner, Mitt Romney, losing by a mere eight votes. This will propel him forward in the presidential race and give him strong momentum going into the South Carolina primary race. He should do well in a staunchly conservative state like South Carolina.
He has also raised $1 million for his campaign over the last two weeks due to his rising prominence in the race. This is a much-needed shot in the arm for a candidacy that was really struggling financially over the past month or two. Look for Santorum to take South Carolina and continue to cause heads to turn in this campaign.
GOP Assemblyman and self professed tea party nut job Tim Donnelly was busted yesterday when he tried to break through airport security in Ontario with a loaded handgun! It can only be speculated what kind of mayhem this tea party nut had planned. Hopefully he will be charged with a felony and thrown in jail ASAP! Another nut bites the dust!
Anyone that attempts to carry a loaded gun on a plane SHOULD be charged with a felony. That said, under the new imperial presidency privilege, he could be turned over to the military for secret, indefinite arrest and rendition to a foreign detention center. That is a lot more worrisome than Donnelly's blatant attempt to skirt airport security.
ELTON GALLEGLY IS GONE. YAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats to Brian Dennert for calling this one! Of course that idiot Tea Party Tom kept claiming Elton would run. Once again Tea Party Loser Tom was wrong! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Now it will be fun to watch Linda Parks kick the crap outa Phony Tony Strickland just like she did to Dear Audra!
We are emerging from a time when ignorance and chaos ruled the world. Elton Gallegly is gone. Not just gone but I hope he changes his mind so he get's his ass kicked gone. Tony Strickland and his cookie baker are breathing their last political breath. Greg Totten has to pay off his lawsuit he might be low on funds but he could give Linda Parks a good run for her money.
Linda Parks is by far and away the best candidate. She can set a new tone for Congress. A Congress with accomplishments.
*My comment did not attack Brian Dennert or anyone who comments on his blog. I will be attacked then I will defend myself. Brian will get angry with me instead of the person who threw the first insult. That's why Brian's blog get's out of control. It's a small flaw he has as a blogger.
Linda Parks who beat Audra Strickland by 30 points just announced she is running for Congress.
Audra Strickland is no Tony Strickland. She is his wife, which doesn't mean she is ready for prime time. Tony is an experienced politician who campaigns like nobody's business and will have a ton of campaign contributions awaiting him the second he announces he's in the race.
Linda Parks is nothing but a big phony who will not have the ability to fund-raise anywhere near Tony's ability. We welcome her entry into this race. We are looking forward to kicking the ever-living crap out of her in this election.
By the way, what a big whiner "nobody" is. "Oh, Brian, please come to my aid. I can't take criticism from the other bloggers here. It makes me pee my pants uncontrollably. Oh, please help me, Brian, pleeeeeeaaaaaaassssse......"
The Fact is that "Real Facts" is also the loser punk Tea Party Tom. This loser has to constantly change his screen name because he makes one idiotic remark after another and then has to run from it. Phony Tony will get slapped down harder than Dear Audra did when she ran against Parks, just like the tea party candidates went down in Ventura! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Come this December we won't have to deal with Gallegly or the Strickland's because they will all be out of work, just like all the people Romney threw out of work! But we will still have Obama and we will have a 2/3rds majority in California! Thank you re-districting and thank you GOP for getting re-districting passed! LMAO!!!!!
Linda Parks's campaign will be driven by her accomplishmets.
The "Strickland brand" has gone up against Linda Parks before. We saw what happend. All the tobacco companies and casinos in the world couldn't change that.
"Linda Parks' campaign will be driven by her accomplishments." BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I literally doubled over in laughter when I read that idiotic comment. What accomplishments?
Do you mean being an obstructionist to prosperity in the east end of the County by continually voting against any proposals by property owners plans to develop their land thus creating jobs and economic opportunity? In this abysmal failure of an economy thanks to Obummer she has the nerve to stifle growth and prosperity on the east end and further dash any hopes of a recovery in Ventura County.
Or were you referring to her continued support of pension spikes and overly generous wage and benefit packages for County government workers so they can retire at the age of 50 with 90% of their earnings? I guess she needs to keep kissing up to SEIU and the other County unions so that those campaign contributions keep flowing.
Linda Parks is a joke and she has absolutely no hope of beating Tony Strickland in this race. I'll keep the champagne chilling until then though.
Both Parks' and Bennett's districts are the most coveted by homeowners and businesses alike. Apparently both Supervisors have done a great job of balancing the needs of their constituents. Perhaps the voters don't want the sorts of jobs and economic opportunities offered by development-at-all-costs politicos like Strickland. Maybe they don't want to watch their property values drop as their communities turn into North Van Nuys West.
You're kidding, right? Trust me, the reason homebuyers are interested in buying property in Bennett's or Parks' districts has nothing to do with Bennett or Parks. It has everything to do with the natural beauty of the landscape and the magnificent vistas in Ojai and Thousand Oaks.
And the voters in those districts know with certainty that Parks and Bennett will help them protect those areas rather than crowd them out and cover them over with more strip malls, auto centers and cookie cutter housing. Thank you for proving my case.
Linda Parks is very concervative. She wouldn't run if she didn't think she could win. The fact is she doesn't have any competitors. It's an opportunity for someone living outside Thousand Oaks to have world class leadership.
Parks and Bennett have nothing to do with people being interested in living in their districts. If anything, they are discouraging people from living in their districts because of their obstinate, unreasonable positions on development there.
People take into account convenient shopping locations, schools, and parks when they consider moving into a particular area. These three things have been stymied big time by both Parks and Bennett based on their voting records regarding development proposals in their districts.
Thanks for again proving my point.
Real Facts aka Tea Party Tom also thought Dear Audra could beat Parks, he thought Perry and then Gingrich could beat the RINO Romney, he thought the tea partiers could win for Ventura City Council, he thought he would be voting on Ventura Parking meters. Basically this idiot has been wrong on everything! This idiot should go see the Wizard and beg for a brain!
GS, I think it is obvious you won this argument. But that isn;t because of your arguments as much as watching the person you are debating counter their own arguments!
I don't see evidence Linda Parks has been against creating or maintaining parks. There is much evidence she has expanded them.
It's called, "giving them enough rope", Brian. Keep 'em talking long enough and they will hang themselves.
I think you two can stop congratulating yourselves now. You're giving the word boorish new meaning.
My points obviously went over both of your heads. Linda Parks has been an obstructionist to development (any development) since she was accidentally elected to the Board of Supervisors 9 years ago as a Democrat in Republican clothing. She has consistently voted to prohibit development in the so-called greenbelt in the western end of Simi Valley from day one. There have been several development proposals (housing and commercial) that have come before the Board in this unincorporated ares of the City last few years that she has voted against.
Steve Bennett has sided with Parks in every one of those anti-property rights votes. Check the record if you don't believe me. In 2007, her and her crony, Bennett, also voted in favor of a "farmland buffer" that essentially moved a huge swath of land on the east end of the County into the "no development zone," thereby denying property owners their right to develop their own land.
They are both anti-business/anti-economic development. Bennett wants to keep Ojai the way it's been since the 1940's, to the detriment of the City's economy.
No thanks to either of these jokers for the 26th District Congressional seat.
Are you saying the voters HAVE to accept development in the greenbelt areas even if they don't want it? Just because you might own property doesn't give you any God-given right to do what you want with it, especially if most of your neighbors feel your plans adversely affect THEIR property.
Even Supervisor Foy made it very clear that at some point the majority of property owners have the say in what sort of development goes on in their neighborhood. He told that to a meeting of Tierra Rejada homeowners and he told the residents of the Knolls that the last property owner to develop may be out of luck when the residents decide that enough is enough.
So, why is it so different when Parks and Bennett take the side of their own constituents in these matters?
Linda Parks isn't going to hide and do nothing like Elton Gallegly and the worthless Stricklands. Linda Parks isn't going to point to tobbacco companies and tacky casinos as her accomplishments. Linda Parks has accomplishments; answers people's questions, has open meetings with her constituents.
The vcrcc is out of touch just as much as the GOP. The vcrcc think this area is only good for Walmart. The truth is a community is made attractive to attract the best companies. Employees of the top companies want to live in a area with open space. The Eric Ingemunsons, Goldbergs, or whoever the fake Republican don't understand that.
The best part of this will be watching the VCRCC pour all their money into the losing Strickland races like they did with Parks, that will allow dems to have a clean sweep in VC! The Conservative/tea party movement is dead, just look at how RINO Romney is kicking conservative butt! LMAO!
Tony is not Audra. Think about that for a minute and let it sink into the few brain cells you might have left.
Tony will whip Linda Parks's ass so bad that she'll have to return to her role as the Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz."