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.

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