Steve Bennett is running for re-election. He has long been an advocate for environmental causes and campaign finance reform. He recently sent out a campaign fundraising email asking for support to keep progressives in control of the Board of Supervisors this November.
The email stated:
The balance of power on the Board of Supervisors is at stake in this election. Powerful forces are anxious to take this seat out of progressive hands. They are lining up behind my opponent. You can help ensure that our sound policies to protect our quality of life continue for four more years.
Steve Bennett is heavily favored to win re-election to the Board of Supervisors. I don't expect this to be among the most exciting race for a local office. What races do you think will create excitement?
Question for Steve Bennett:
What has been the impact of the campaign finance reforms you have supported?
Send me a message with your reply and I'll post it on the front page.
I appreciated your support during the recent June primary. In the four way race we ran a strong campaign, won 44% of the vote and developed a solid base for the November runoff election. You can build on our momentum by helping us grow the resources we will need for success this November. The next campaign reporting period ends June 30th, and contributions made before then have more impact. The balance of power on the Board of Supervisors is at stake in this election. Powerful forces are anxious to take this seat out of progressive hands. They are lining up behind my opponent. You can help ensure that our sound policies to protect our quality of life continue for four more years. go online to contribute. Strong campaigns need financial resources and a strong volunteer base. If you can help the campaign with volunteer time as the election approaches, please send us an email at Steve Bennett.DONATE HERE!
Thank you,Steve Bennett
Bennett will beat Roper by 30 ppoints!
Bennett will beat Roper by 30 points!
Roper will beat Bennett by 30 points!
By the way, "Bennett is da man!", you only need to hit the submit button once. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry I guess I picked up a bad habit from that complete idiot Roper is da man aka tea party tom and 30 other fake names that gutless little punk hides behind! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No, sorry, punk! You can't blame your bad habits on me. Unlike your lame Dumocrat Party that thinks the government can solve all of society's problems, we in the GOP believe you have to take responsibility for your own actions - even for something as incredibly stupid as hitting the "Submit" button twice.
Bennett, "The Fossil," needs to go. We need real leadership on the Board of Supervisors. Not a lackey for the public employee unions and the enviro-nuts!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Face it you're a typical moronic republiklan with an IQ of 65 punk! LMAO!!!!! I'm gonna laugh hard when you have to bow down to Bennett and Obama on election night so get your knee pads out punk, the one's you wear when you crawl into your republiklan meetings! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
This idiotic Bennett supporter has also been following Obama around for the last 4 years on his knees, only raising his head occasionally to plant a wet one on his ass. C'mon, punk, is that all you got?
Obama is desperately trying to lock into the angry voters right now by trying to get Congress to pass an extension of the Bush tax cuts. Except, of course, like the Socialist he is, he wants to end the tax cuts for those households making over $250,000/year. In other words, Obama, the Socialist, wants to penalize people for being successful.
This is a recipe for disaster and Congress will never pass it. Better go back to the drawing board, Obama. So far, your record on managing the economy has been abysmal!!!
When will this "environmentalist" explain in writing in this newspaper his reasons for voting for Waste Managements' expansion of its Simi Valley dump?
My neighbors and I want to understand the "environmental" rationale (if he has one) for allowing huge amounts of waste of all sorts from Los Angeles and elsewhere outside of this county to be buried here.
Have you checked Bennett's campaign finance statements lately? Seems like Waste Management is a big contributor to his campaign. Hmmmmmm...........
Have you checked Peter Foy's campaign finance statements lately? Seems like Waste Management is a big contributor to his campaign. Hmmmmmm........... Waste Management it seems owns Foy. During the dump expansion Foy would only meet with Waste Management and refused to meet with any voters from Moorpark or Simi. Hmmmmmm....... Word also is that Roper and Foy are good buddies. Hmmmmmm.......
Try and pay attention, Bennett worshipper. The point that Harold Godwin raised was Bennett's legitimacy as an environmentalist given his undying support of Waste Management's expansion of the Simi Valley landfill. You had no response to this so you went off on a tangent about Peter Foy, who has never proclaimed himself to be an environmentalist. Thus, his vote on the landfill is consistent with his positions on other similar issues.
Why don't you try and answer Godwin's original question about Bennett's inconsistencies in the way he talks vs. the way he votes? You can't, can you, punk? Just as I thought...
The real conclusion: All of the members of the Board of Supervisors put Waste Management's interests before those of the Ventura County and its citizens.
There was no heroic public service here by any of those involved in this decisions. The only service seems to have been for Waste Management and for themselves.
No guts, no glory for any of them!
Have you checked Peter Foy's campaign finance statements lately? Seems like Waste Management is a big contributor to his campaign. Hmmmmmm........... Waste Management it seems owns Foy. During the dump expansion Foy would only meet with Waste Management and refused to meet with any voters from Moorpark or Simi. Hmmmmmm....... Word also is that Roper and Foy are good buddies. Hmmmmmm.......
"Roper is Da Loser" is obviously brain dead and cannot partake in the serious debate that Harold and I have started here. All he seems capable of doing is regurgitating his prior idiotic comments. I won't be wasting any more of my time on this intellectually challenged dope.
Harold, you make an excellent point regarding the Board abandoning its responsibilities to the public in regards to the Simi Valley landfill expansion. They seemed to have clearly placed the interests of Waste Management above that of the community.
The issue you brought up previously regarding Steve Bennett betraying his standing as an "environmentalist" is a very cogent one. At least Pete Foy let you know where he stood on the issue up front and stuck to his position throughout. Bennett did a complete 180 on it. We should check the timing of his receipt of campaign contributions from Waste Management relative to his vote on the landfill expansion.
Do not presume to speak for me.
I have no respect for Foy because he openly made no secret of his support the Waste Management in his 2006 campaign and again in 2010 when he was up for re-election. His property rights stand is nothing more than an abrogation of his duty to look out for the interest of the entire community.
Neither Bennett or Foy seem to place the people of this county ahead of their own ambition.
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." -- Abraham Lincoln
Have you checked Peter Foy's campaign finance statements lately? Seems like Waste Management is a big contributor to his campaign. Hmmmmmm........... Waste Management it seems owns Foy. During the dump expansion Foy would only meet with Waste Management and refused to meet with any voters from Moorpark or Simi. Hmmmmmm....... Word also is that Roper and Foy are good buddies. Hmmmmmm.......
Do not obfuscate the issue with innuendo and misleading responses.
-- Peter Foy, his ambition and his backers are no secret to anyone following local politics.
One the other hand:
-- Steve Bennett is the one claiming to be the environmental champion.
-- Steve Bennett - as a member of the Board of Supervisors - is the one voted (along with Foy) to foist the dump expansion and L.A. County trash into Simi Valley.
-- Steve Bennett therefore is the one who needs to do the explaining and refuses to do so.
The silence from Steve Bennett - on his vote in support of this decision with its negative environmental consequences to this County - is deafening!
Harold is 100% correct. Steve Bennett is the wrong candidate because he has done nothing to serve his constituents regarding the Waste Management issue. He has been involved in back-door after back-door deal while on the Board of Supervisors and the Waste Management deal is just one of dozens of glaring examples of where he has let his constituents down in favor of lining his own pockets and rewarding wealthy supporters who will contribute to his campaigns.
Vote for integrity in November...vote for Roper!
Have you checked Peter Foy's campaign finance statements lately? Seems like Waste Management is a big contributor to his campaign. Hmmmmmm........... Waste Management it seems owns Foy. During the dump expansion Foy would only meet with Waste Management and refused to meet with any voters from Moorpark or Simi. Hmmmmmm....... Word also is that Roper and Foy are good buddies. Hmmmmmm.......
Perhaps you believe that if you repeat the same unsubstantiated nonsense over and over again, someone will believe you.
The current Board of Supervisors - including Foy and Bennett - are all on the record as supporting the dump expansion to allow L.A. County trash to become a permanent part of the landscape of Simi Valley. None of these folks care a fig about the county environment.
If you have something tangible to show Roper's support of Waste Management, put the verifiable specific here or just admit you are clueless.
Forget about it, Harold. This fool will never produce anything showing Roper's support of the Waste Management expansion because no such evidence exists.
All Tyler Durden is doing here, if you read all of his previous postings, is copying and pasting my comments on Steve Bennett and inserting Bob Roper's name in place of Bennett's. He's such a little child, possessing limited intellectual skills and imagination, that this is simply the best he can do.
We should all feel sorry for Tyler because he is obviously in desperate need of attention and validation. If this is the best the County Dems can do, they're in big trouble.
The Democratic Party is - and has always been - a "big tent" where all sorts of people with widely varied positions are assembled. That's okay with me, I am a Dem and I understand that. What I do not understand is Bennett's failure as a long-time incumbent to come forward and argue the merits of what he has done. He must have had his reasons, but does he feel they should not be disclosed to the folks who pay his salary for some reason?
I will again state the reason why he should speak out now:
-- Steve Bennett is the one claiming to be the environmental champion.
-- Steve Bennett - as a member of the Board of Supervisors - voted to foist the dump expansion and L.A. County trash upon Ventura County.
-- Steve Bennett therefore is the one who needs to explain his action - if he can.
It is called "transparency" - a term bantered about by those in politics, but apparently much less often practiced by those in the game.
(I hope that one of Steve Bennett's real friends will do him the service of calling this blog to his attention because I am not sure that Bennett actually reads it.)
I can tell you that Bennett's attitude about the Simi Valley landfill expansion was that this decision wasn't going to affect him politically because it's way outside his district. It was either a matter of horse-trading for votes with Foy and others to support this project in exchange for their support of something he valued in his district somewhere down the line and/or he received a campaign contribution from Waste Management in exchange for his support of the landfill expansion.
And if either of these things are true, he will never admit to them publicly. So, you're probably wasting your breath, Harold.
One suggestion might be to send an e-mail to his Chief of Staff, Brian Brennan, and pose the question to him. You're probably going to get some rambling obfuscation, knowing Brennan as I do. But, it might be worth a try.
A public action deserves a public response.
Otherwise, he will find he will:
-- Risk having his base as well as undecided voters hear about his actions over and over and over again between now and election day here and elsewhere;
-- Risk losing face (and contributions of money, effort and votes) with some of the folks who regard themselves as committed environmentalists. They do not believe - as you claim he may - that literally turning a large part of Ventura County into a mountain of trash of all kinds from Los Angeles is worth a little "horse-trading"; and
-- Risk leaving his future political viability in doubt by inviting further challenges from well-funded, well-organized opponents from within his own party by appearing timid and weak when challenged
I still think he will have will have to answer for his actions.
I agree with you 100% that Bennett should answer for his actions. But, I am just not convinced that he actually will. As much as I dislike Bennett and his politics, I've got to say that he is a very shrewd politician.
He obviously took a calculated risk in voting in favor of the landfill expansion. He clearly believed that this vote would have a minimal impact on his reelection bid in the First District Supervisorial District. People complaining about him in Simi Valley are not going to cause people in his district to vote against him.
I think, unfortunately, Bennett is going to win his reelection bid hands down; notwithstanding his vote on the landfill.
Bennett's shrewdness as a politician is a matter of debate.
He has already showed that he is timid and unwilling to challenge any well-funded capable campaigner for a seat where he is not the incumbent. He did not secure his party's endorsement for a congressional district that did include the ever-expanding dump he helped make possible with his vote and so he pulled out of the race:
http://www.theacorn.com/news/2012-02-16/Front_Page/Bennett_wont_run_for_Congress.html
He has chosen a safer, less ambitious challenge. He figures the Democratic majority of his current supevisorial district will settle for him because of his party affiliation and his incumbency. Even so, his vote against the environmental welfare of this county and his timidity in pursuing the congressional nomination are very clear signs to the people of his district of his weakness as an environmentalist and, more importantly, as a leader.
He is vulnerable. There is no guaranteed victory for him.
Roper is nothing but another hand puppet of the VCRCC, just like Phony Tony. Bennett will beat him by probably 30 points, just like Parks whipped Audra.
Steve Bennett is a weak and gutless person and leader. He was to weak to get the support of the DCCC and to scared to take on his good friend, Linda Parks. Oh and did I mention Loyalty means nothing to him. He may beat Roper but not because he derserves to be a leader. He will never go any higher and hopefully he will have his legs chopped out from underneath him in this race. By the way I'm a Democrat and live in his district and I don't like his being bought by Waste Magement for the Landfill expansion.
Bob Roper is a weak and gutless person and leader. He was too weak to get the support of the VCRCC and to scared to take on his good friend, Petey Foy. Oh and did I mention Loyalty means nothing to him. He won't beat Bennett but not because he derserves to be a leader. He will never go any higher and hopefully he will have his legs chopped out from underneath him in this race. By the way I'm a Republican and live in his district and I don't like his being bought by Waste Magement for the Landfill expansion.