The deadline to file to run for a local office was extended to 5PM today for positions where an incumbent did not file to run. Here is a list of the candidates that includes the names of incumbents that did not file.

Do you expect any surprises?

I have more videos and pictures to post later this week. If you have videos of pictures from today you want posted send them to me.

Former State Assembly candidate Ferial Masry has news regarding her intentions:

Candidate for Sheriff Geoff Dean (R) worked the crowd. Here he is speaking to Ventura City Council Members Brian Brennan and Ed Summers. I expect Geoff Dean's list of endorsements will be updated with new bipartisan additions soon.

I ran into a friend of this blog Denis O'Leary of Oxnard. Denis has been a long time activist for a variety of progressive causes.

State Assembly candidate Susan Jordan gave a speech that outlined her life story and the causes she supports. Her opponent Das Williams was there too. I will post his picture later. Das, if you have pictures from today you want posted send them in.

Here are a bunch of polls related to the labor day picnic and candidates that were there.

Click here for the news story from The Star.

( Connect the name of this band to this entry as a challenge.)

The California Association of Political Centrists ( CAPC ) working with The Star and CLU is putting together some great events locally. To see a full press release you normally need to click on continue reading, but to thank Katie Teague, Leslie Cornejo, Joe Howry, and all the other people volunteering to put together these public forums I am posting the full press release on my main page.

Here is the press release from CAPC:

For Immediate Release

California Association of Political Centrists (CAPC) has joined forces with the Political Science Department of California Lutheran University and the Ventura County Star newspaper to put on a series of candidate forums for the citizens of Ventura County . The second forum is going to be held at the CLU Oxnard campus. It will be moderated by CLU's Jose Marichal, PhD, Political Science and Sociology Department. All questions will be vetted by Joe Howry, Editor, Ventura County Star. It will take place at the CLU Oxnard Hall at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, September 24. The Gold Coast Hispanic Chamber will be a participating organization.

Thursday, September 25 at CLU Oxnard Campus at 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Oxnard Center

2201 Outlet Center Drive Suite 600

Oxnard , CA 93036

Board of Supervisor - Debate ( Ventura County Star will provide questions)

John Flynn, Incumbent

John Zaragoza, Candidate

Ventura County Board of Education (10 minutes each)

Dr. Mark Lisagor- candidate for 3rd District

Dr. Ramon Flores - candidate for 5th District

Proposition 11 - Redistricting (10 minutes each)

Pro Argument - Leslie Cornejo, CAPC

Con Argument - Dave Rodriguez, LULAC

Measure U - Unification (7 minutes each)

Pro Argument - Camarillo Unified

Con Argument - John Alamillo (former PVSD trustee), 4Allthekids

No Response

Chris Valenzano, Incumbent, Ventura County Board of Education, 3rd District

Dan Miller, Candidate, Ventura County Board of Education, 5th District

Leslie Cornejo, State Chairman of CAPC believes, "It is important to become informed and engaged as voters so that we have a truly representative government acting on behalf of the people and our priorities. These candidate forums will assist us to do just that. We hope everyone will take this opportunity to become better informed."

Forum proxies will be allowed but they may not be elected officials or candidates seeking other office.

More information can be found on the CAPC website, www.PoliticalCentrists.com

###

A new group of educators has been put together and will be organizing events for Hannah-Beth Jackson in East County. Their next event is a fundraiser. Click on continue reading for details.

The list includes 3 school board members from Simi Valley and past county board of education candidate / education activist Donna Prenta from Simi Valley. Donna, the press release mentions that Hannah-Beth Jackson has the support of many education board members throughout the county. Is there a place where we could view the names? Have you been calling on Hannah-Beth Jackson's behalf to help the campaign?

Getting educators together to support a candidate isn't anything new. But what about the idea of getting together a group of students to support a candidate? That would be impressive locally because of the lack of political participation and organization of the parties.

( Somebody get me a new video of this contest!)

A new group of Republicans that are supporting Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson has formed.

Unlike the purported group of Democrats supporting Strickland this group has a long list of former party leaders and elected officials.

Why is the group of self-proclaimed Democrats not willing to put their names behind Tony Strickland?

I am sure that Republicans will try to diminish the group but before you do, who is the biggest name Democrat supporting Tony Strickland?

Who is the most surprising name that you see on the list?

Click here to see their petition.

Click continue reading to see their press release.

Click here for Timm Herdt's take on the new group.

( Warning: Timm is spelled with two M's. If you send him an email and spell his name wrong he will sign you up for spam.)

A friend of mine puts together websites for Democratic candidates if you want a website put up quickly send me an email.

( Raymond Cruz Simi Valley School Board candidate)

I heard that former school board candidate and current Ventura County Republican Central Committee Ray Cruz picked up papers to run again.

If elected should he resign from the central committee? I haven't thought it through all the way yet but I was curious about your input.

Ray Cruz has a long resume of helping out various causes in town. If I recall correctly he is in the financial services industry and active in his church. He also teaches a Bible Class. I only mention his church life because he has brought it in his past campaign.

UPDATE: Two people I respect went after me because I mentioned that Raymond Cruz is active in his church and that he has taught classes on the Bible .

1. I know Raymond Cruz is very much pleased to share his role in his church with the wider public.
2. In his past campaign he citied his church involvement.
3. He listed himself as an educator. His education background includes teaching people about financial services and teaching at his church. If he was running as an educator it makes sense to mention how he is involved.
4. He has brought up religious issues as part of his platform and not just creationism. About creationism he said: "We should teach creationism and give that an equal balance with evolution." Click here to read the article.

But now with all that being said the other parts of his contribution to our community should be shared more. When he starts putting out a detailed list I will post it. But off the top of my head and with an assist from Google he is also heavily involved with Rotary, The Cultural Arts Center, and the Vino Jazz Festival.

I know I am missing much more about his involvement but I will update it again as the campaign unfolds.

After all the years you have know me and my beliefs, including my religious faith, I think you should apologize for trying to make it look like I was going after him for being a Christian. That is just as unfair and uncalled for as if I actually did.

Looks like someone is looking to run for mayor against Paul Miller in Simi Valley. Check back for details.

UPDATE: Here is a Craigslist.org ad for paid positions working on the campaign.

More information to come soon.

UPDATE 2: I have communicated with the candidate and they said they haven't done anything official yet but in a few weeks I can get the exclusive if I don't post their name. Check back in a few weeks. In the meantime, what issues do you think a successful challenger would run on? I think there is a consensus that Paul Miller would be tough to beat. Any suggestions? How many of you would vote for him if you could? Anyone looking for a change at city hall?

( What we were missing by attending the protest. What does the NBA and politics have in common? People shove each other and then a debate breaks out about it. Meanwhile the game continues.)

In an effort to minimize my comments I will allow the article to speak for itself. I want to back up the process by which it was written but as I have said in the past I did not witness the man being knocked to the ground and I didn't see Audra's Chief of Staff push him. I did see him stand in front of the path of people walking up the side walk but I don't know what he said as I was too far back to hear it.

I will say that The Star and reporter Teresa Rochester interviewed many people over the last couple of days to make sure the story was accurate. Reading the article you will see that The Star interviewed the key individuals directly.

Protest organizer Louis Pandolfi notified in advance the media and the police about the protest. Although the police on duty didn't know about it The Star staff including Teresa Rochester to cover the event.

Being that there was about 50 partisans on each side their recollections wouldn't be fair to include. But Teresa Rochester was on scene and had many pictures taken as the events described took place. The Star did not publish all of the pictures.

I know that people will quibble with her story but she is part of the few eyewitnesses to the event that wasn't on a side protesting. Another would be The Star photographer.

I have heard a prominent Democrat in the past complain about her being too favorable to those in power ( Republicans ) and that she was too cautious in her writing.

I am sure people will be arguing about this article too.

Here are some more of my photos from the event:

and...

If someone that has Audra Strickland's released letter sends it to me I will post it so you can read it for yourself.

( How much do you expect we will be seeing Butt Man following Tony Strickland around? Rumor has it he might get his own Youtube channel.)

I was at the protest ( those against tobacco money in politics and in support of Hannah-Beth Jackson and/or Barack Obama) / counter protest ( those in favor of Mitt Romney, Tony Strickland, The VCRCC, and against Hannah-Beth Jackson ) outside the Tony Strickland event tonight and I have videos and pictures to share.

( Here is a video of Butt Man explaining why he dressed up as a cigarette to protest against The VCRCC and Tony Strickland for taking tobacco money)

I first want to thank all of those on both sides who stood up for their candidates and causes in a responsible manner. Don't allow a few hot heads to take away from everything else that happened. 99% of the people there were in good moods, shared their views fairly, and were there in a peaceful manner. We had a few laughs about why everyone gets excited by "Big tobacco" but "Little Tobacco" doesn't get any mention.

( Butt Man hanging out with some young Barack Obama supporters.)

When I pulled off of the freeway there was people already gathered to support Mitt Romney, Tony Strickland, and attacking "Taxin' Jackson" for also taking tobacco money through taking donations from those that have accepted donations from other people. Tony Strickland's group was rather large. I would estimate it was about 50 people outside the event but on the narrow sidewalk it was hard to get a good number. If you were there do you think I have the numbers right? I didn't get many pictures of them as they arrived earlier than I did and left earlier then the Hannah-Beth Jackson supporters.

The protesters assembled and walked up to the front of the hotel and that is when trouble started. One of Tony Strickland's supporters tried to stop the crowd that was about 30 strong at that point by claiming they had already called the entire sidewalk in front of the hotel. At least that's what I think he was trying to explain. I was in the back trying to get my new memory chip put in to my camera. Then allegedly the Tony Strickland supporter pushed / bumped into an older gentleman and a young lady. There exists multiple copies of either video of photos of the incident that I will be putting up over the next few weeks so you can decide for yourself what happened.

The Police were called as the older gentlemen was injured ( enough to be concerned but not serious enough for an ambulance) and the younger woman had a slight scratch from a nearby shrub.

The Police took witness statements for pretty much the rest of the protest from anyone and everyone involved or standing near. My friend Brian Mack gave the police a video copy of the incident after the police requested it and told him he could get it back in about a week . The police said they were going to arrest the Tony Strickland supporter for pushing people but the Tony Strickland supporter said it was in fact he who was the victim. He said the Democrats came after him. As the police did not witness the incident they said they could arrest both parties but cooler heads prevailed as organizers ( A campaign manager from Tony Strickland's side *I didn't catch the name. Email it to me and I will add his name in* and Louis Pandolfi who supports Hannah-Beth Jackson) from both sides agreed to save the police hours of paperwork and everyone was free to go back to waving their signs.

This is how The Star put a different incident with the same Tony Strickland supporter but a different protester:

The demonstrations outside the hotel drew Ventura County sheriff's deputies after a scuffle involving the chief of staff for Strickland's wife, Assemblywoman Audra Strickland, R-Moorpark. Joel Angeles was involved in a dispute with an opponent waving placards chiding Tony Strickland for accepting campaign contributions from tobacco companies. A heated verbal argument broke out between Angeles and Strickland opponents, which escalated to a physical tussle between Angeles and some of the protesters. Louis Pandolfi of Simi Valley, who organized the opposition demonstration, said he expected run-ins with supporters, but not as soon as they arrived.

This is the photo in The Star's story but it is not the same incident that drew the Police to file a report.

(Photo caption from The Star reporter's story: Dana Rene Bowler / Star staff Joel Angeles, center, the chief of staff for Assemblywoman Audra Strickland, gets into a tussle Tuesday night with Charles Harrington, right, of Simi Valley during a protest outside the Hyatt Westlake Hotel.

By the end of the protest I would guess there was about 50 people on each side. Is that about right? I was too busy arguing that the chances of someone being arrested when the crowd is filled only with partisan witnesses was pretty slim.

The protesters waved signs calling out Tony Strickland for taking tobacco money with a variety of lines on them. They also waved many Barack Obama signs too. I would guess that the average person driving up Westlake Blvd. hasn't been following the politics of tobacco money in Ventura politics but they recognize Barack Obama signs and gave a variety of responses as they drove by. The protesters were organized by a Hannah-Beth Jackson supporter, Louis Pandolfi, from Simi Valley and included people from across Ventura County including Democratic activists, college students, and others. The young Republicans were convinced that people were paid to be there to protest against them. I didn't see any of that and I am pretty sure that the only form of exchange was maybe Butt Man getting a free meal for dressing up.

Once the police were called and they were notified of the problems with their supporter Tony Strickland's campaign staff ( you know who you are!) did a great job of keeping their side away from the other side.

For anyone organizing any sort of protest one suggestion I have is to keep the two sides separate and out of each others' faces. You aren't there to argue with the other side. Don't have someone walk through the other side for fun and not expect weeks of arguing about who started it or who did what first. How about next time the organizers call each other and divide the areas so as to keep people away from each other? If your candidates are promising to work across the aisle I am sure your staff members or supporters can call each other and work something out. What do you say? One group of protesters on each side of the street sounds fair.

I didn't see it and neither did most of you. So, don't assume to know what happened without seeing proof. I will post the tapes as they come into me.

State Assembly candidate Ferial Masry was in attendance. I know her son Omar Masry on a personal level so when she told me someone called her a terrorist ( Ferial is Muslim and was born in Saudi Arabia) I took it pretty serious as calling a Muslim a terrorist sounds like a racial slur to me. I walked up w/ video and asked Ferial to ask him to say what he said again and make it a leading question like " say what you said again, please" but by then another Strickland supporter caught wind and said they had no comment. I wanted to allow the man a chance to clarify himself, admit it, or deny it so it wouldn't become another incident without proof. Later, someone else said they were called a terrorist too but they were of European descent so it sounds like over heated political talk and not much else. But I wasn't a witness to it so I don't want to make too much out of it or vouch for exactly what was said.

The protests ended peacefully with both sides making their point. Tony Strickland's supporters, many of which were dressed in suits, and Hannah-Beth Jackson's supporters chanted in support of their candidate and against tobacco money or hypocrisy.

And last but not least the best video of the night can be found by clicking here. Turn on your speakers loud as it is hard to hear.

( Police officers viewing one of the tapes of the shoving incident. I will post the tape if I can get a copy when the police give it back to the owner of it. Will it be the biggest let down since Al Capone's vault or a little more exciting? )

I maintain my earlier argument that the campaign money from tobacco, because it is so unpopular, isn't worth giving your opponents a campaign issue.

So, did you attend the event inside? How was it? I haven't seen many reports but this is what The Star said why Mitt Romney explained he supports Tony Strickland:

"I believe Tony Strickland can cut back on wasteful spending and can remove the interest of special interests and bring new ideas to Sacramento," Romney said in an interview before the event.

Is there any mistakes in my report you think I should correct? Let me know by email or by leaving a comment and I will look into it. I am sure there are many things that I missed. I tried to report as much as I could and be as fair as possible to both sides. If there is more to include to reach that goal give me some feedback.

The event was expected to raise up to $200,000 for Tony Strickland's campaign.

Judging by the early returns in the news cycle who won the media battle outside?

( Past candidate Thurlow Partridge (R) speaking about his campaign. To see more candidates videos click on continue reading.)

I don't know if any challengers will appear but SEA ( Simi Valley Educators' Association) which is the union that represents Simi Valley teachers has endorsed all three incumbents for reelection.

Unions have their own reasons for doing things and an endorsement this early surprised me. I personally like to wait to see who all the candidates are before I choose who I am going to support. Their goal was likely to encourage them all to run again and do make any potential challenger think again. Will it work or will we see a contested school board election?

I assume that means Janice DiFatta (R), Rob Collins (D), and Debbie Sandland (D) are all planning on running again.

What are the top priorities for you when voting for school board?

I want candidates that have a background in business or education. Someone that has helped local schools in a variety of ways. I want someone that will go to campuses not just for big events but to check out how things are being run. What I don't like is political activists that are there for their own reasons. A school board mixed with people from different parts of our community including education, business, and other places seems like a good fit.

It seems John McCain is anxious over Barack Obama's ability to connect with voters and make news. Check out these events from the last few days:

Here is Barack Obama, in church on Father's Day, calling on fathers, especially African American fathers, to be there for their children.

( it already has close to 40,000 views on Youtube.)

Here is Barack Obama calling for help on behalf of the victims of the midwest funding. He also flew in, helped out , and used his campaign organization to get people to help:

And on his front page you see this:

And what is John McCain up to? On his front page it has a long list of Finance Events. He is also hosting town hall Meetings with the campaign helping to select audience members, which isn't what they were claiming it was going to be. Even Fox News called them on it.

So, is it in Barack Obama's best interest to be at every meeting that John McCain wants to hold? Most likely not. But it might be in our nation's best interest to watch them debate each other many times.

I think both campaigns should compromise. Barack Obama's campaign has already agreed to a total of 5 events between here and the election in November. Maybe he should add in one or two more events. Having a weekly event over this summer is a little too much and it is an attempt to get Barack Obama out of the type of campaigning he has been very effective at thus far.

Now that I have said all of that let's take this to the local level.

Of course Rep. Elton Gallegly is the heavy favorite to win. But wouldn't it be great if he participated in at least 1 event with his opponent that was focused just on their race this summer? A town hall forum where the audience could ask questions of them and a recording would be broadcast on cable?

What about Hannah Beth Jackson and Tony Strickland? What excuse do they have for not meeting at least once a month to answer questions from the audience or a panel? Do you think it would be good for democracy to watch them debate their different visions across our district?

To make the events fair I don't care who they ask to moderate them. The Acorn? The Star? League Of Women Voters? A Rotary Club? What about other elected officials? Maybe even no moderator at all but instead a Lincoln Douglas type event where each candidate gets a few minutes to talk and they switch back and forth for an hour?

If enough people show their interest I will invite both campaigns to debate and report back which campaign refuses to debate.

I like the no host format so neither campaign can argue they don't think the moderator in unfair.

I haven't seen Hannah Beth Jackson in a debate or speak before a large audience but I have seen Tony Strickland do it a few times and he seems well practiced at it. I know his critics doubt him but his public speaking skills are pretty good. He can read an audience better than many local politicians.

What do you think? Should they do monthly debates across the district?

( If I was on a board I would consider every school playing this on the last day. Maybe not.)

Is your local School Board interesting or boring? Would you rather have it the other way?

A maxim has been attributed to the Chinese as "May you live in interesting times". Read this interesting article for insight on the quote.

The top three school boards that attract the most political attention include Conejo, The County Board, and Camarillo.

To read an update on Camarillo schools click on continue reading. Otherwise consider this an open thread about local schools.

My suggestion: Instead of slagging people down tell us who you really want to run again for a school board seat or who you want to run for their first time as a school board member.

Nominate someone!