Brian:

Politics, at its core is tribal..

Each voter, using self-selected means, must experience a visceral connection to a candidate before moving on to supporting, volunteering, contributing and ultimately voting for that candidate.

For some voters the commonality of ideological rhetoric is most comforting, although as was once said, "many prefer ideology since it spares them the torture of thought."

For others, a hard-earned respect for the candidate's past performance perceived through shared experiences and battles in the political trenches binds them to a given candidate, much as is experienced by soldiers in combat.

For others, it is the joy of seeing one of their own elected to office, whether it be shared ancestry, ethnicity, gender, racer, religion, region of birth, or countless other descriptors of shared human background, values and experiences.

Clearly the Thayne campaign is betting on the fact that given the pronounced, Malibu-Santa Monica left-coast ideological locus of the Brownley candidacy, she will have an uphill battle demonstrating that she is sufficiently in-tune with the customs, values and political mores practiced by substantial numbers of Ventura County's Democrats, particularly East County Democrats, than their candidate, and others.

Whether or not this effort proves successful remains to be seen, especially given the "top-two" nature of California Primary elections.

But what is not arguable is that the Brownley campaign is playing right into the Thayne campaign's hands, by their ill-conceived logistical choices.

Nearly sixty sixty years ago, Jess Unruh, Democratic Speaker of the California Assembly opined, "Money is the Mother's milk of politics." And more than forty years ago, Deep Throat advised Woodward and Bernstein to "Follow the Money," during their quest for the self-evident fundraising truths during the Watergate cover-up.

Given these self-evident political axioms, it is fatuously astounding that the Brownley campaign, would choose a West Covina, CA address for its Julia Brownley for Congress Campaign Committee. [See URL Above]

After all, the last time I checked Google-Earth maps, West Covina had not been annexed to Ventura County!

David Thayne keeps labeling Julia Brownley as a carpetbagger having only moved into the district when she decided to run for CA 26 Congressional seat. Keep in mind she has represented parts of the County and the CA26 for nearly six years and has been very active with the local Democratic party. I would like to know how long Thayne has lived in Ventura County, what he knows about the issues in Ventura County and what kind of community service he has done in the County that is at the level of any of the other candidates. I know he has never been involved with the local Democratic party.

Mr. Leshon:

Fair and pointed question for Mr. Thayne to answer.

It will be interesting to see if and how he or one of his campaign surrogate chooses to answer it..

At this point, I have no dog in the 26th CD electoral hunt..

My point regarding the geographic locus of Ms. Brownley's campaign committee address was purely tactical and reflected a sporting interest in the relative positioning of the hounds and the foxes in this evolving electoral hunt.

Subsequently, I have reviewed Ms. Brownley's campaign website. It strikes me as well designed, visually resonant and clearly attempts to confirm her 'bona-fides' with Ventura County Democrats robustly, at least via virtual connections.

Nonetheless, given the newness of the 26th CD boundaries, the inherent tensions between East and West County Democrats, and the fact that Democratic Primary voters are faced with three distinctly different candidates from which to choose, it will be interesting to see how Ventura County Democratic tribal affinity manifests itself in this race.

We shall see what develops and whether or not the Democratic vote remains so split that their opponents, Mssr. Strickland on the right, and Ms. Parks up the independent middle, outflank and outpace the collective choice made by a plurality of the Democratic voters for one of the top-two spots in November.

I continue to be amazed at how much stock the Ventura County Democratic Party is placing in Julia Brownley. I agree with David Cruz Thayne that she is indeed a carpetbagger from Santa Monica with far left credentials and absolutely no ties to Ventura County.

In fact, she had to move to an apartment within the County just to qualify as a candidate for this race. I seem to remember another well known local politician who recently moved to an apartment within the Ventura County Supervisorial District she wanted to run in. And we all know how well that turned out for her.

I see Brownley's candidacy working to Linda Parks' advantage. David Cruz Thayne and Jesse Herrera will siphon a lot of votes away from Brownley because they are far better known in Ventura County, especially Herrera. And Parks, with her extremely high name recognition and her "no party preference" status on the ballot, will pull plenty of Democratic and independent votes away from Brownley.

In the June open primary, I see Tony Strickland coming in first and Linda Parks coming in second. So, Brownley won't even make it to the general election in November, thanks to this foolish choice by the Democrats.

They would have been much better off sticking with Steve Bennett as their candidate. Now it looks like Bennett may have a hard time holding on to his Supervisor's seat, with 3 big name challengers on the ballot.

Brownley's a Poor Choice

You are aware that there is no residence requirement to run for Congress aren't you?? So she could be living Kansas and still qualify to to run in this race. It is very different than running for supervisor, city council, state assembly or senate where you must live within the geographical boundaries of the district you wish to represent.

That being said, Brownley has stronger ties to the county than Thayne as she has represented parts of the county from Thousand Oaks to Oxnard for almost six years now. She regularly attends Democratic Party functions and is well known among the grassroots who are very supportive of her candidacy.

It is Thayne who has no ties to the district or the Democratic Party and is about as well known as you are to the voters. He has demonstrated no knowledge of any local or national issues. Thayne got a whole six votes in the Latino Issues Forum straw poll which is constituency he is chasing. Linda Parks came in third with 21 votes and was again pushed by the moderator for not answering questions. So much for your expert analysis.

It appears that the Democrats are operating, yet again, with blinders on, as evidenced by this rebuttal by Brian Leshon. This kind of rancor and division is exactly what Republicans rely on to win elections. Thanks for confirming this fact, Leshon.

Go Linda!!!

It turns out that Republican Abel Maldanado who got the top two primary in California owes the IRS $470,000 in back taxes! Vote for Lois Capps!

It seems that Al Sharpton owes over $1 million in back taxes that he steadfastly refuses to pay. The IRS won't dare go after him though for fear that they would be accused of racism.

This is what happens when someone has staked out a position (which the media has bought into hook, line, and sinker) that anything bad that happens to blacks in America is due to institutional racism rather than their own shortcomings or bad behavior.

And Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are still harping on racism and discrimination as the evils of whitey and corporate America that are perpetrated on black America, even after we have elected a black President. I guess if they weren't able to perpetuate this myth the gravy train would stop for these two guys.

It seems that Al Sharpton owes over $1 million in back taxes that he steadfastly refuses to pay. The IRS won't dare go after him though for fear that they would be accused of racism.

This is what happens when someone has staked out a position (which the media has bought into hook, line, and sinker) that anything bad that happens to blacks in America is due to institutional racism rather than their own shortcomings or bad behavior.

And Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are still harping on racism and discrimination as the evils of whitey and corporate America that are perpetrated on black America, even after we have elected a black President. I guess if they weren't able to perpetuate this myth the gravy train would stop for these two guys.

NostraDemus

I thought you might be interested, David Cruz Thayne finally gave a partial answer to the question how long has he lived in Ventura County, what kind of community service he has done in the County that is at the level of any of the other candidates. Here is the answer he sent on Facebook:

"David has lived in Westlake for well over the past four years, his kids have all been attending the public schools in the district during that time, he is on the board of the local homeless shelter in the district and all of this far predates any of the redistricting."

Westlake was never a part of the CA24 which is still in force until after the next representative is sworn in, and is barely within the boundaries of the new CA26. His only community service is with a homeless shelter which is admirable but limited compared Julia Brownley's representation of an area from Thousand Oaks to Oxnard in the Assembly and Jesse Herrara's time on the Harbor commission. So he has far less ties than either of those candidates to Ventura County and should be looking for something else to prop up his campaign.

As for Brownley's a Poor Choice, you still haven't answered if he is aware there is no residence requirement for congress.

Brian, Oxnard wasn't part of CA24 either which means that no one from Oxnard should be able to run according to your pathetic excuse for logic. And who cares if there are any residency requirements, people still want people from their own district to represent them. It's a political problem for Bronwley not a legal one, as ALL of you pointed out during Audra Strickland's campaign. So stop being a hypocrite and act like an adult instead of another party hack.
Sincerely,
Every Reasonable Person in the World