Progressives in Ventura County are currently recruiting candidates for many positions from local School Boards to State Assembly. They have a training program to help candidates get started and access to their mailing lists for candidates that earn party support. If you are thinking of running send me an email and I will pass it on to them.

Who would you nominate to run for office?

I would like to see Simi valley City Council Member Steve Sojka run for the State Legislature. He is a Republican but he isn't strident or ideological. I think Sacramento could benefit from his experiences as a small business person.

Who would you like to see run for office?

Kyle Quiroz, the co-creator of the most viral video for a local candidate in Ventura County, nominated a fellow supporter of Steve Sojka. Team Sojka didn't win in the end but they put together a great campaign. Here is Kyle's nomination:

I would like to nominate Kevin Underwood who did so much for Steve Sojka's campaign. Although Sojka did not win, Underwood coordinated events by emailing updates and helping to manage the Run Steve Run facebook page. He was there through everything. From precinct walks to street corner rallies, and he stayed there until the end of the campaign party. For someone who's not even related to Steve he did a heck lot more than a lot of us. That's why I nominate Kevin Underwood for an award. Kyle Quiroz

( With all the negativity between the campaigns this video should remind people about what unites us.)

Steve Sojka's field commander Kevin Underwood sends out regular updates with events for supporters to attend. Click on continue reading to see the latest.

I included this message Kevin sent me as an example to other candidates on how to organize field operations for a local campaign. Team Huber is doing similar things this weekend. I expect the street corners and freeway overpasses will be crowded this weekend.

What's your favorite last weekend campaign event?

I read this post and the comments on it on the Simi Valley Facebook Page. You can go read it by going to that page and scrolling down the page.

I know that parties and activists want to promote people they agree with because candidates for one office might run for another office later. But I don't find this issue compelling in the race for mayor of Simi Valley. Do you?

I do find it interesting to learn how people make their decisions on local candidates.

I have been taking pictures of events for school board , city council, and mayoral candidates. Some of them I post on this page but many of them I post on my Facebook fanpage for my blog. Please go to facebook.com/briandennerthere to see more about Ventura County politics.

You can also directly upload your photographs there. I will be posting every mailer sent to me there as an online library of Ventura County campaigns.

Tomorrow morning Sojka for Simi Valley supporters will be rallying on street corners again. I won't be going by their rally but they can spread their message by posting the pictures to my blog's Facebook page directly from the event.

Click on continue reading for details on upcoming Team Sojka events.

Last Feburary I challenged a young Sojka supporter to make a song about Simi Valley. He did and the video above is the product of that challenge. As a reward I kept Sojka for Mayor blog posts at the top of my page for a month over the summer.

I was out walking the other night and I came across the writer/singer of that song, Kyle Quiroz. We talked for a few minutes and he told me Youtube contacted him because they are now promoting his video. That basically means it is at the top of the search results for Simi Valley on Youtube and they are paying him. At around 4,000 views it isn't much but I am proud that my blog helped launch the most viral campaign video in Ventura County Campaign history. I am more impressed that Youtube is now sharing ad revenue with Kyle.

I offered a similar deal to Team Huber but they rejected it. I also offered to let them come up with some challenges but they didn't see the value in that either.

Go to my past entry for the lyrics and my original post on this video.

Simi Valley City Council Member Steve Sojka has a unique meet and greet at the Simi Valley Town Center where voters can get a free haircut and talk to him about his campaign for mayor. I like the idea of informal and free gatherings where people can meet the candidates. Click on continue reading for the details.

For my hip hop fans out there which rapper has a song where he says people are so busy talking about him in barber shops they don't get their haircut? I didn't directly quote the song to make it harder to google the answer.

( Simi Valley Blogger Mike Chandler took this video at Bob Huber's event.)

Simi Valley candidate for Mayor Bob Huber had a strong week starting with the endorsement of the Ventura County Republican Central Committee and ending with a casual townhall event at Ranch Park called Burgers with Bob.

The Republican Central Committee endorsement has the potential to backfire on him but with his strong support from Democrats like Simi Valley School Board Member Rob Collins and former Chair of the Ventura County Democratic Party Hank Lacayo he is able to accurately claim he has bipartisan support.

He also has the endorsements of unions representing firefighters and police officers. The Ventura County Firefighters are among the best organized interest groups in this area. Their ability to mobilize is impressive. I have seen them to great GOTV work. I am not sure how much support either of those unions intend to give beyond their endorsements though. If you are a member of either let me know what you have been seeing.

I didn't go to Bob Huber's event today but from what I am seeing it went great for him. The true test will be to see what sort of media coverage he is able to get from it. I missed his event because a friend of mine that I greatly admire was in town. Rob, I may not have said it to you before but if you didn't know I think you are an awesome man and you have served as a role model to me. Over the years you have said things that have really stuck with me.

For more of Mike Chandler's coverage go to his blog.

Steve Sojka has had his signs up since early July and yesterday Bob Huber started putting his signs up too. I expect this to be among the top political battles in Simi Valley political history. By November this town is going to have bumper stickers and signs that in so many places it will be surprising.

Signs are necessary because they help build name ID for the candidates easily. They wouldn't be as needed if voters were better informed. But until then I expect them to continue to be a focus of many campaigns.

I took a few pictures of Huber's new signs but I didn't get any great shots. Send me a better picture if you want me to post it.

Which of the signs do you like better?

( Thanks to Team Huber for sending in this picture.)

Rep. Elton Gallegly's signs have started going up around town recently. A reader sent in this photograph of a Steve Sojka for Mayor sign along with the Gallegly sign. I thought it was interesting how many design elements they share with each other.

Bob Huber, who is running for mayor, hasn't started putting up his signs yet because as he said in a recent post on his website:

Thank you to all of you that have inquired on the status of our campaign signs. We are extremely grateful for your continued support and interest in our campaign. While the City ordinance allows for 120 days prior to the election to display political signs we are concerned the citizens of Simi Valley would resent looking at them for four (4) full months prior to the election.

The opinion section of the July 9 Acorn states "We hope future candidates will have the courage to just say no to these billboards of blight and instead focus on the issues, not on name recognition".

While we will not be able to ignore the significance of putting up signs in the near future we hope you share our view of keeping our City free of extra signs as long as possible out of respect for the feelings of our citizens.

Does Rep. Gallegly really need the name identification provided by posting signs by this point in his career as a politician? He was first elected to Congress in 1986 back when Ronald Reagan was president. He has served in Congress while Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Barack Obama have been president. Before that he served as mayor and a council member in Simi Valley.

I don't fault him for putting up campaign signs but does the direct criticism candidate Bob Huber posted against Sojka's signs also apply to his most prominent backer?

Rep. Gallegly recently said that he is supporting Bob Huber because Huber is the only candidate that has as their only agenda the city of Simi Valley. My readers have been guessing what he was implying being that there are only two candidates so obviously he meant Sojka has another agenda.

Here is the video from Team Huber with Rep. Gallegly's comments at the very end:

So far the consensus of my readers is that Rep. Gallegly was implying that Sojka was planning to run for higher office after running for mayor. That would be really funny because Gallegly served as mayor of Simi Valley before he ran for congress. What do you think Gallegly was implying about Steve Sojka?

And as always whenever I mention Rep. Elton Gallegly I try to remind everyone that he is the only member of The House of Representatives, of either party, in the region that doesn't hold town hall forums.

Last Saturday night I attended Steve Sojka's fundraiser as a guest to take videos and pictures. I am going to be posting photographs that Don Norris and I took plus videos in the coming days. Team Sojka put together a great event.

Casino night was a much more entertaining than most political fundraisers I have attended. Players win chips and at the end raffle tickets were given out according to how many chips a player earned. I was lucky in a few hands and I ended up winning a Steve Sojka for Mayor tshirt and a gift certificate for a Sushi restaurant. Steve Sojka might have just earned my wife's vote.

A campaign issue that I care for is the proposal to turn the Arroyo ( what many of you derisively call the wash) into an amazing trail and park that goes across Simi Valley. You can read more about the proposal here and here. At the end of a long night for Steve Sojka he agreed to make a short video discussing this project. Watch the video and let me know what you think. You don't need to register to comment but keep it classy.

The proposal will have many challenges to get it done but I am more interested in how a candidate plans to get it built instead of what details they don't like about the idea. The Arroyo can become a great resource from our community and it is among my top issues in this campaign.

To see more of the photographs from the event or to upload your own go to:

http://www.facebook.com/BrianDennertHere

It is getting late so I will write a full report on Monday but for the time being you can check out some of the pictures I took on my blog's facebook page. I will post some videos on Monday too.

http://www.facebook.com/BrianDennertHere

You can also upload your photographs to that page too.