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.

( 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.

( 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.

I went to the Grand Opening of Hannah-Beth Jackson's campaign office Wednesday night in Ventura. After the excitement outside and inside the Tony Strickland w/ Mitt Romney event I was let down. It was the standard office opening party.

When I was walking up I ran into Republican activist Steve Frank who was a lone protester outside the event. Steve was holding a Taxin' Jackson sign and keeping tabs on the amount of people or who was attending the event. I asked if he wanted to talk on a short video but he declined and had no comment as he was there for business.

Inside the event there was about 25 people total. I looked around for signs of liberalism and found this:

( Looks like the tomato crisis is over!)

I didn't find any MAC computers running Firefox, pilates mats, or Nalgene bottles.

There were local Democratic Activists ( Steve Cummings from the Ventura Democratic Club), labor union supporters, people from the education community, business people, and a few young people, and as far as I could tell no other media. But ask Steve Frank. He was keeping track of that stuff too from the outside.

For about 15 minutes Hannah-Beth Jackson spoke about the campaign thus far, her issues, and then she took questions.

She started off by expressing her shock at the shoving that happened outside the Tony Strickland fundraiser. She said she would not tolerate that from her campaign and went on about freedom of expression and the constitutional right to free speech. She even mentioned Steve Frank and his right to stand outside the meeting and talked about how that is a great part of our nation's freedoms.

At a past event I asked her if she would pledge to not take contributions from gambling interests and the prison guards' union being that she had talked about her budget priorities including funding education at a high level. She said it was wrong how much we spend on prisoners while we cut education. Hannah-Beth Jackson said she wasn't going t pledge to not take any money from them but she said her record shows that she isn't beholden to them. ( Rough paraphrase, I don't know if she used the word beholden or not).

Last night she said there was two industries that she wouldn't take direct contributions from: oil and tobacco. That reminds me of the movie Zoolander. Tobacco and Oil do not go together:

How many of you got the reference without watching the video?

On the issue of tobacco funding she said the major difference was not the money but the voting patterns. She discussed key votes where she and her opponent voted differently when they served in the state assembly together. If you want to read more about the tobacco issue click on continue reading to see her latest press releases.

She discussed the need for some regulations and the role of government in a free market economy to provide for infrastructure and an educated workforce.

The long drive back to Simi Valley gave me a chance to reflect how large this state senate district really is and how hard it is to organize events when the drive time along back and forth would be a few hours. It would be awesome if both campaigns opened offices in Simi Valley soon. Maybe they could team up with local Democratic or Republican clubs?

Trivia question: Being that Tony and Hannah-Beth served in the assembly at the same time and both represented parts of Ventura County can you name any legislation they worked on together?

If they are promising to work with members of the other party did they ever work together?

I will be very impressed with your research skills if you name the legislation or action.

( 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.

( Thanks to Brian Mack for another great photoshop. If you want him to 'shop a local figure e-mail me with suggestions. In the meantime check out the website for his new play he wrote.

Here is your chance to help Peter Foy reform county government. He wants you to apply for a variety of volunteer positions with the county government. If you plan on applying leave a comment what position you are applying for.

If you end up working with Peter Foy you can always blog here on the front page of your efforts and meetings.

Click on continue reading for the press release.

Here is a documentary from The History Channel about Rocketdyne. Some people think it only impacts The Knolls, but the pollution is thought to be in the groundwater of the floor of our valley.

If you are a part of any Boeing/Rocketdyne activist group, please post any information about upcoming meetings or events. Also, when you leave a message in the box that says URL put a link back to your website.

Here is another video from Steve Gould, candidate for Simi Valley School Board. In it he talks about C4 the bond that is paying for school remodels across the district. Some critics have attacked the oversight of the bond and the rate at which inflation has caused projects to be shelved.

After you watch the video leave a comment or question for Steve Gould.

If you want to ask a question of another candidate click on their entry. I have videos or entries devoted to many candidates. If you want to be included just e-mail me.

Click here for
Steve Gould's first video ( Simi Valley School Board)
Thurlow Partridge ( Simi Valley School Board)
Jeanne Davis ( Simi Valley School Board)
Tim Camarillo ( Simi Valley School Board)
Mark Van Dam ( Moorpark City Council)
Jim Dantona ( Ventura County Board of Supervisors)
Peter Foy ( Ventura County Board of Supervisors)
Charles Watson ( County Board of Education)
ML Peterson ( County Board of Education)
Donna Prenta ( County Board of Education)
Rev. Jill Martinez ( CA-24 House of Representatives )

( Editor's note: This is part 2 in a series with Moorpark City Council candidate Mark Van Dam. To view the earlier version, click here: If you have a candidate that would like video posted e-mail me.)

In this short clip Mark Van Dam discusses his views on The NorthPark Project.

Because the project is outside the Urban Growth Boundary of Moorpark an election was called on the development. The No side won in a landslide.

Feel free to leave questions for Mark Van Dam so he can answer them like he has done in the past.

Editor's note: This is just one video in a series from candidates for school board. If you want a video, let me know by e-mail)

A reader Scott once told me the best question to ask any candidate. It seems rather obvious but it goes " Why are you running?" Some candidates don't have an answer. Some do. It tells worlds about a candidate if they have a well thought out answer.

Here is a short clip from Thurlow Partridge ( candidate for Simi Valley School Board) explaining some of the reasons he is running.

I am not here to tell you who to vote for. I will post information on any candidate that contacts me and would like to have their information listed. I figure candidates that respect democracy will take advantage of many ways to inform voters. Candidates that don't really respect our system will try to hide behind meaningless cliches and well worn phrases on countless junk mailers.

With ten candidates in this race it will be tough for them to seperate themselves from the crowd. I will provide a forum so voters can discuss the issues and ask the questions most important to them. Consider me the moderator and this website to be the debate. May the best candidates win.

After you watch the video join the discussion. Ask Thurlow a question or leave your response to others questions. You can be critical, but not personal. If you ever see a nasty comment you want deleted, e-mail me and I will take it down.

If you want to learn more about Thurlow Partidge e-mail him at fundtime@aol.com