I saw an article posted on Twitter that Tony Strickland is running again.

Besides Jeff Gorell, this is the best candidate that Ventura County Republicans were likely able to recruit.

In a midterm election do you think Tony Strickland will have a better chance?

What do you think his ballot designation will be?

Go on Twitter and you can see the questions Julia Brownley answered. I asked her about charter schools and how to motivate more young females to study STEM majors.

What do you think of her answers?

Let me know if your candidate is holding a Twitter Townhall.

State Assembly candidate Scott Wilk is promoting reusable bags. I support that idea.

But has he not heard of State Senator Tony Strickland's new fearmongering bill?

Ventura County Star Reporter Timm Herdt has an interesting blog post up on Tony Strickland's fundraising.

http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/therdt/archives/2012/01/the-strickland.html

There are now officially six candidates for the Ventura County based 26th Congressional district with the latest being Linda Parks. She is a Republican with strong connections to the local environmental community.

Linda Parks will make a formidable opponent for the other candidates. Her platform so far includes criticisms of the insider trading scandal in Congress, calls for less partisanship, and appeals to limit the influence of corporate PACS and unions in politics. She will be running as a populist outsider.

Her campaign will need to answer questions from many activists in both parties if she wants to attract their support. To start with what party would should caucus with? I will request an interview with her soon.

I shared the story on my Facebook page for this blog before it was in the newspapers. If you want to follow the latest in Ventura County politics include that page in your reading.

https://www.facebook.com/BrianDennertHere

Who are the other potential candidates?

Tony Strickland is expected to announce that he is running. He is currently in New Hampshire campaigning with Mitt Romney. I expect when he returns he will be organizing his official announcement.

Peter Foy has also been mentioned as a potential candidate but he has said he will be supporting Tony Strickland.

Other potential candidates include Michael Tenenbaum and maybe Rep. Brad Sherman moving to the district to avoid a primary battle with fellow Democrat Rep. Howard Berman.

Another blog had a rumor in the comments section that Michael Reagan was considering a run also. That would be very interesting if some Republicans want an alternative to Tony Strickland. Tony Strickland has spent a long time organizing the local Republican Party. The Central Committee has many close allies of his on it. Michael Reagan wouldn't start as the favorite of local Republicans.

A surprise potential candidate is Simi Valley City Council Member Glen Beccerra who said:

"This seat looks like it was designed for a Hispanic Republican," he said.

Becerra, like Gallegly, lives in Simi Valley, outside of the district lines, but said that makes little difference.
"I was born and raised in Ventura County, and this is a Ventura County district," he said.

The Constitution does not require Members of Congress to live in the district they represent.

Ventura County politics is going to start being much more exciting.

( Picture from a different event but it seemed fitting)

Ventura County Star Reporter Timm Herdt posted a blog entry on a recent roast of State Assembly Speaker John Perez that Former State Assembly Member Audra Strickland participated in.

Here was a few lines from her routine worth sharing:

"Did you know that John Pérez actually tried out for The Biggest Loser TV show? Not surprisingly it didn't go well. He kept letting the team with the purple shirts win," Strickland on Pérez, referring to the purple-shirted SEIU protestors who frequent the Capitol.

and

"Seriously John, if you vote for that tax on sugary goods, it would be just like Charlie Sheen voting on a tax on porn and meth," Strickland on Pérez.

and

"I was going through the Capitol this morning and chatting with a visitor and he said, 'You know, I always feel like we're getting screwed by legislators who don't know what they're doing.' And I was like, 'Tell me about it, it happens to me every night,'" Strickland, who is married to GOP Sen. Tony Strickland.

I like when politicians can laugh at themselves. Audra Strickland earned some respect from me for participating in this event. Now go and pass a budget!

To read more of the jokes go the Sac Bee's website.

In a post on my Facebook page for this blog I called the Republican plan to cut taxes and not cut education spending an imaginary budget.

State Senator Tony Strickland's staff sent me a couple of links to show they believe they have a serious plan to fix the budget with the current level of taxes reverting to earlier levels and without cutting education spending.

Here are their budget outlines:

http://arc.asm.ca.gov//Caucus/pdf/AssemblyRepublicanBudgetRoadma.pdf

http://arc.asm.ca.gov/inc/article.aspx?id=248431

For a budget proposal to be realistic it needs to be able to attract majority support. I doubt this proposal could get enough Democratic votes to create a coalition with Republicans to pass it. What do you think?

On a related note arguing over what to call proposed tax extensions is interesting. Both sides feel that if their chosen words are used then they will win the budget battle. Democrats prefer to call them tax extensions and Republicans like to call them tax increases.

I figure if you are reading this blog you understand the basics of the debate enough that using either phrases isn't likely to change your mind. The tax increases are set to expire which means we will have a tax cut. Not that anyone is calling it a tax cut.

The question is if we should cut taxes from their current level, increase them, or keep them at their current level. One side wants to cut them and one side wants to keep them at the current level.

What side are you on?

Sidenote: I often disagree with the policies State Senator Tony Strickland supports but I do appreciate that he has a proactive staff and he does so many public events.

I was sent me this email with questions for my other readers:

Hey Brian,

I am a teacher in Ventura and I am just sick about what is happening in our schools and the state budget crisis. My question is, how can I start a campaign to recall Tony Strickland? I would like to start something on Facebook, but does something already exist? Am I the only one who feels this way?

Thank you in advance for your time. I need to do something and if this is possible it may change things.

Sincerely,

Steve

I don't support a recall of State Senator Tony Strickland. He campaigned on a platform and has stayed true to it since he was elected for the most part. Sure, he clearly overstated his interest and support of environmental causes but his pledges to not compromise on tax increases or tax extensions have been kept.

That doesn't mean I support his policies or his opposition to compromise. In fact, I believe his opposition to compromise is bad for California and bad for his party. To get the tax extensions on the ballot there was many reforms with broad appeal including reforming teacher tenure. Instead we might get a cuts only budget without important reforms.

Tony Strickland is a product of our system including term limits, the way we fund campaigns, and our old primary system.

Tony Strickland is a career politician. That's not an insult nor should it be. I don't know why we want to ridicule people for public service. He was termed out of the State Assembly and if he runs again he could be termed out of the State Senate. I expect he will keep running for office and he needs a voting record that will help him with Republican activists.

If he compromises with Jerry Brown it will be hard for him to raise money or get other support from activist Republicans. Our politics are so polarized that Mike Huckabee was attacked for supporting Michelle Obama's campaign to increase physical fitness. When I was young the Presidential Fitness Award was an honor. Now Glenn Beck wants to label things like that some form of totalitarianism. If Mike Huckabee was attacked for supporting the First Lady imagine what Republican Party leaders would do if Tony Strickland worked with Jerry Brown to reform public schools!

He knows if he votes for compromises he would have a tough time in a primary for a future office. I'm not sure how are new primary system will increase incentives for compromise but maybe it will help.

If Tony Strickland was revealed to have a character flaw that voters did not have a chance to evaluate or if he campaigned as a bipartisan deal maker that could bring people together I would support a recall.

I don't support a recall but I do support compromise.

The Los Angeles Times has released an internal document of the items being negotiated between Republicans and Democrats in Sacramento.

Here is the section on education:

Which Republicans locally are in negotiations?

State Assembly Member Jeff Gorell has been deployed to war and State Senator Tony Strickland has clearly stated he isn't interested in any negotiations that put the tax extensions on the ballot. I received a robocall asking me to contact State Assembly Member Cameron Smyth recently.

This is an impressive list of reforms. I don't accept the argument that some Republicans, like George Runner, are promoting that their party shouldn't be open to negotiations. The reform to teacher tenure alone would be huge.

I'm not the most partisan blogger. I want Republicans to negotiate for some of the items on the list including limiting pension spiking and reforming education. What good ideas did you find in the document?

Ventura County Democrats have been emailing this video to me that demands for Republicans to put the tax extensions on the ballot.

State Senator Tony Strickland has been very consistent that he isn't interested in any negotiations that include tax extensions or tax increases. It doesn't matter what Governor Jerry Brown offers to include in a deal in exchange for the tax extensions being put on the ballot.

I am not sure if his inflexibility helps his conservative views make progress. If he was willing to make a deal he could include some of his priorities.

Critics argue my posting that he isn't open to negotiation on this topic is an insult towards him. But his defenders should instead be arguing that he is a man of his promises and he is only doing what he told people he would do when he was campaigning for this position.

Do you want the tax extensions put on the ballot?

The State finally has a budget. Ventura County Timm Herdt has some details. Basically more cuts, more budget tricks, no new taxes. Ventura County Democratic legislators voted for it, Ventura County Republican legislators voted no, except for Cameron Smyth who abstained for some reason.

This picture of State Senator Tony Strickland is a true Rorschach test. Many of his critics will see a legislator that isn't concerned with the havoc caused when politicians refuse to compromise for the common good. But I assume his supporters will see a tired legislator who laughed at something in the middle of all the shenanigans, budgetary tricks, and empty speeches that defines the state budget process.

The question is what do you see in the budget?

Why Jerry Brown or Meg Whitman would like like to be held responsible for the problems in Sacramento surprises me.

Like many of you I thought the contest between Audra Strickland and Linda Parks would be close. I don't have much to add to what Timm Herdt and Eric Ingemunson have already written. If the race was close then it would be easy to dismiss arguments like the voters have rejected negative campaigning. But with a stunning defeat many factors are likely true.

Mike Osbourn tried to blame the money unions spent on the race but that can't be the prime cause when the VCRCC spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Audra Strickland. They can't blame turnout when Republican turnout was much higher than DTS and Democratic voters. Besides, blaming turnout admits that Audra Strickland didn't have cross party appeal.

Blaming incumbency doesn't work either because both of the candidates currently represent most of the same people. Incumbency is usually very powerful because of name ID and the ability to raise money. Audra Strickland's supporters can't claim those worked against her because she is a well-known elected official and she was very-well funded.

I was amused that Audra Strickland's team played so many games including demanding that a fundrasier of hers or a past candidate against Linda Parks moderate a debate. She might have technically been correct that Linda Parks didn't demand a neutral moderator but did her team really think the news stories on the issue would look good to voters?

I don't know exactly what motivated voters to reject Audra Strickland's arguments or I would put it in a binder and sell it to other politicians. What do you think influenced voters the most?

It is approximately the % by which Linda Parks defeated Audra Strickland and it is also the approximate number of negative mailers Audra Strickland sent out during the campaign.

Over the next few weeks I will review some of the other campaigns. Next up: The Clerk / Recorder race.