In a surprise move to bolster tourism Moorpark now also has a Happy face Hill. Created by an art class at Moorpark College the hill is attracting attention.

Moorpark officials announced "With this latest public art addition we all know that the real Happy Face Hill is in Moorpark." Moorpark officials also claimed they would push for recognition for their city to be known legally as "The home of the Happy Face Hill".

As of press time Simi Valley officials have refused to respond.

Democrats have made a new Democratic Party Club in Moorpark. Click on continue reading.

Moorpark Democrats: What are you going to do at your next meeting? If you send in pictures I will post them.

I have a question for Moorpark School Board Member Nathan Sweet.

What's the most surprising thing you have learned since you started serving on the Moorpark School Board? Who has helped you the most learn how to be an effective school board member?

( David Pollock was an actor and a school board member, and now is on the Moorpark City Council.)

David Pollock, Steve Bennett, and David Cruz Thayne, are currently the only three declared candidates for the Congressional district that includes most of Ventura County except for most of Simi Valley. I will be covering these campaigns in detail.

So far Republicans don't have any declared candidates.

On David Pollock's website he lists an impressive group of people that have endorsed him including support from Republican elected officials. Show off your local political knowledge by posting which of the people that endorsed him are Republicans.

Here is his Thanksgiving message:

This year we have many things to be thankful for. Ventura County is home to some of the most beautiful natural scenery, most comfortable climate and most fertile farmland in the nation. Just a short drive from the hustle and bustle of LA, we enjoy our quiet neighborhoods and old fashioned sense of community. And we have another thing to be thankful for: for the first time in a generation, we have a real choice in who will represent us in Congress.
Our current Congress has its priorities backwards. They are defending the elite upper class at the expense of the middle class. We have a tax system that enables CEOs to pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. We have a healthcare system that bankrupts people who get sick. This is plain nuts!
I believe that the government should look out for small businesses and entrepreneurs, not just large corporations. We need Congress to understand that the measure of a nation is how we treat our most vulnerable citizens, not how we coddle our millionaires.
I got into public service because I wanted my kids to have better schools. Now I'm running for Congress to make sure that the next generation of kids is not the first in American history to have a lower standard of living than their parents.
While we have a lot to be thankful for, we also have a lot of work to do. Please check out my website at www.pollockforcongress.com and consider getting involved.

Warm Regards,

David Pollock

I cover Ventura County politics from Park Boards to School Boards. Sometimes I am serious but sometimes I want to use my blog for local politicians and activists to have a good time. Besides being fun I want the fun contests to remind all of us that what we have in common is bigger than what divides us. Maybe when we laugh with each other we can focus on our policy differences more than personality clashes. That's the plan anyway.

Do you remember the cutest dog competition? I am proud of how many people participated by sending in pictures.

What about the video contest Team Sojka won? Kyle Quiroz told me he is actually getting paid a very small amount by Youtube for that video.

This time I am sponsoring a Planking Competition.

Awards will be given for a variety of categories including most creative, most on message, and best picture. Elected officials, activists, and others can enter by emailing me their pictures. You can have us guess where the picture was taken or include that information for me to post.

Here is the first entry:

Moorpark City Council Member Mark Van Dam is planking in a mysterious spot. Any guesses where he is at?

State Assembly Member Jeff Gorell teased me that he might send in a picture of him planking in Afghanistan. Would you like him to send in a picture? Vote in my online poll.

I unlocked the poll so you can vote as many times as you want.

Many times when there is a vacancy on a school board or city council a person is appointed to avoid the cost of a special election. That is often a wise use of resources, especially in the current budget era.

But then the appointed person often runs for the office as an incumbent, which gives them many advantages over prospective challengers. An open seat is much more likely to be contested than running against an incumbent for many reasons.

There is a solution to this problem. Appoint someone that promises not to run again.

Moorpark did this when there was a vacancy on their city council and they just appointed someone to a vacant position on the school board.

More councils and school boards should follow their example. It gives voters a chance for their votes to matter more. People appointed to serve are often highly qualified and do a great job. But voters should be the judge of who is the most qualified in a contested election.

Click here for the article on the appointment to the Moorpark School Board.

Firefighter Nathan Sweet earned 2nd place in the Moorpark City City Council Elections, losing to long time school board member David Pollock.

Nathan Sweet ran a great campaign and was really close to being elected. I expect he will stay involved in politics and keep volunteering in his community. Maybe with a few more years experience and community involvement he will run again.

Anyways, this mailer was targeted at Democratic households. He ran as a proud Democrat in a Republican dominated city against a business person endorsed by conservatives Peter Foy and Tony Strickland.

How did running as a proud Democrat work out for him? Well he beat the Republican but ended up losing to another Democrat!

City council races are nonpartisan officially, but with many voters get their cues from their political parties and other elected officials on how to vote their values.

So, how do I explain the success of David Pollock? The most likely answer is that he was familiar to voters because he has served on the Moorpark School Board for many years.

But without any data to prove my argument I would also like to throw out there that David Pollock might have earned his most critical endorsement when Larry Jones, coach of the US Championship Academic Decathlon Team endorsed him.

Politicians like Tony Strickland and Peter Foy might help a candidate with some voters but hinder them with others. Same goes for mentioning your political party.

But Larry Jones is a legendary Academic Decathlon coach, long time Moorpark High School teacher, and has been in the newspapers frequently for bringing pride based on student achievement to the community.

I am glad Moorpark put the position on the ballot instead of appointing someone that then ran as an incumbent. I am also impressed so many community members including David Bagwell, David Pollock, and Nathan Sweet put their names forward for consideration. All of the candidates deserve our respect for running.

Next big local campaign:

County Sheriff.

In the latest update David Pollock (D) is in first, with Nathan Sweet (D) in second and David Bagwell (R) in third.

The numbers appear to be final and even with provisional ballots I don't expect the results to change much.

Congratulations to David Pollock.

I said before that Moorpark voters had some decent candidates running for city council, compared to the rest of us that just had some awful choices to make with the propositions.

I will write a more detailed analysis later but here are some quick thoughts:

The Bagwell campaign had the endorsements of State Senator Tony Strickland and County Supervisor Peter Foy. This obviously could have helped him with Republican voters but announcing it in mailers, his website, and the newspaper could have caused a serious net drag with Democratic voters.

In addition, having Tony Strickland and Peter Foy on his side energized Democratic activists from across Ventura County and beyond.

Many Democrats were motivated to elect someone they agreed with to the Moorpark City Council AND to stop someone that is aligned with Tony Strickland. From his resume David Bagwell is a very impressive community member and I expect he will strongly consider running again.

David Pollock was know to many Moorpark voters from past elections. His experience and name advantage likely pushed him over the top.

Nathan Sweet did a great job for a first time candidate and a relative new comer to Moorpark. I expect he will become more involved by continuing to help in his community and by joining local charitable organizations. I expect to see him running again.

Good night.

BTW: If the elections division somehow updates the unofficial results and it changes anything I will apologize. But that doesn't seem likely as the turn out for this election was very low. How was the line when you went to vote? I have never my precinct so vacant before.

Click here for the results from the elections division.

As I predicted the top candidates so far are David Bagwell, Nathan Sweet, and David Pollock.

Not surprisingly Propositions 1A through 1E are widely expected to fail. Seems like voters across the political spectrum think if they send the same governor and almost the same legislature back to renegotiations a better deal will be emerge. Do you think the next proposal will be better?

Click here for Ventura County results.

Click here for statewide results.

This is an an open thread. What's on your mind?

I am not making any claims that it will influence the vote on Tuesday but Firefighter Nathan Sweet has won my online poll of readers. As is 9PM the results:

Thanks to all of those that voted. Moorpark has many fine candidates to choose from. I know Nathan Sweet and I think he would make a great addition to the Moorpark City Council.

When a vacancy was created on the Moorpark City Council the city could have appointed someone that would then run in the next election as an incumbent. Instead the scheduled an election that allows all candidates to run on a level playing field. It is to the credit of the rest of the city council that they found a way of including voters.

If other boards are in the same situation and want to avoid the cost of an election they could always appoint a place holder until the next election.

Good job Moorpark and good luck figuring our who to vote for on Tuesday!

I know "The Bagwell Letters" sounds like a book title or something. Anyways, David Bagwell's campaign has been doing a decent job getting his letters published in local papers. Here are some recent letters:

Like many in Moorpark, I see "David Bagwell for City Council" signs all over town. It's obvious by the size and number of signs that Mr. Bagwell really wants to be on the City Council. Many residents know that Mr. Bagwell and his wife, Jodi Bagwell, own Bagwell Construction Company here in Moorpark, but I would also like to point out some additional facts residents should know before voting. Jodi Bagwell was appointed to the Moorpark Planning Commission by Janice Parvin in Deccember 2008. So the first question is: Do we see a problem with a husband and wife who own a home construction business having seats on the Planning Commission and the City Council? I also want to point out that the Bagwells were staunch supporters of the failed 1,600 new-home North Park Village development in Moorpark in 2005. That year, Mr. Bagwell wrote letters to the Moorpark Acorn supporting and promoting the North Park development on Feb. 17, April 28, July 15, Aug. 12, and Oct. 14. Anyone can find these letters in the archives online. Some quotes from his letters are, "North Park Village is well-planned and would be an extraordinary addition to Moorpark," and "This is a great project." Could it be that the Bagwells supported North Park because it would have benefited them monetarily? No other resident I know supported this destructive development. I don't want to doubt the motives of citizens who wish to volunteer for their community, and I have nothing personal against the Bagwells, but I do have the following question: Why would a husband and wife who own a construction company in town, that already has one co-owner on the Planning Commission, vie for the other co-owner to be on the City Council? Could it be to help push through developments or construction projects that would benefit Bagwell Construction? I would not be concerned if Mr. or Mrs. Bagwell were on either the Planning Commission or the City Council, but I am very concerned about them having positions on both government bodies. -- Lisa Houston, Moorpark

Click here for the letters to the editor page. The real question is which candidate will do the best job of getting letters published in the last edition of the Moorpark Acorn coming out before election day this Tuesday.

In my continuing online poll candidates Nathan Sweet and David Pollock are close to tied for first with David Bagwell in third. I wonder if some of the other candidates have even bothered to google their names recently. I will have updates from other candidates later this week. If you have any photos of campaign activity, including pictures of campaign signs send them to me and I will post them.

School Board Member David Pollock emailed me his latest mailer. Click on continue reading to see it.

My online poll shows David Pollock making a surge and is behind Nathan Sweet in first and David Bagwell in second.

David Bagwell was recently endorsed by Republican Ventura County Community College District Trustee Bob Huber, Republican County Supervisor Peter Foy, and Republican State Senator Tony Strickland. If you are looking for the choice of the Republican establishment of Ventura County David Bagwell is your choice. At this rate I expect Republican Member of Congress Elton Gallegly to endorse him. Although, with absentee ballots already being mailed in I wonder why these endorsements were announced earlier.

I have not seen any campaign material from Republican Party activist Jon Miller. If you see anything send it in.

Send in any events, campaign literature, or photos of campaign signs you want me to post of any of the candidates.