WHILE WRITING IS A CATHARTIC experience for some, putting painful episodes of my life into words has always been difficult for me.

And so it went with the final outcome of the state senate race between Hannah-Beth Jackson and Tony Strickland. Jackson lost by just 857 votes to an opponent who ran the dirtiest, most deceitful campaign I have ever witnessed.

It was the blog entry that never got written.

But today brought news that finally drew me out of the deep well I had been residing in, a well dug by a temporary loss of faith in our system of democracy. It was a pit dug even deeper by an incident that I witnessed last summer in which I once thought justice would never be served.

Today I heard that Assembly member Audra Strickland's chief of staff -- and Tony Strickland's former chief of staff -- will indeed go to trial for actions that occurred June 17 outside a Westlake fundraiser for Tony's campaign.

The State Attorney General's Office has filed a complaint in Ventura County Superior Court against Joel Angeles on four counts: interference with civil rights (involving Louis Pandolfi of Simi Valley); battery causing serious bodily injury (involving Jack Phillips of Camarillo); battery (involving Pandolfi); and battery (involving Sandy Quiring of Simi Valley). The trial is scheduled for Feb. 6.

These incidents allegedly occurred against three people gathered to protest the acceptance of more than $130,000 in direct and indirect campaign contributions from the tobacco industry for Tony Strickland.

As one of more than 50 anti-tobacco protesters at the Hyatt Westlake, I am also one of 11 witnesses who had to provide a statement about what I had seen that day. I remain unwavering in my account that Angeles' actions were unprovoked and I watched as he knocked 67-year-old Phillips, a minister, to the ground. Phillips later underwent surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff.

LEGAL EXPERTS TELL ME that Angeles could serve a year in jail for each offense, and while he could work out a plea bargain arrangement, the civil rights complaint will make it harder to do so. The violation of Pandolfi's civil rights was filed as a "hate" crime and the battery against Phillips was filed as a major crime with great bodily injury. These charges were carefully crafted to open the door for a civil lawsuit as well as restitution.

No doubt forces were at work throughout the election season to keep the story under wraps. And the file seemingly languished on Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten's desk for an eternity before he recused himself and passed it up to the State Attorney General's office.

Despite the sensitive nature of his office, Totten was a most ardent campaigner for Tony Strickland. The recusal was certainly warranted.

I am more than happy to let the courts determine the final outcome and have no wish to try this case via the press. But the decision today restored my faith that sometimes people determined to do the right thing can prevail.

POLITICAL JUNKIES LOOKING for more drama won't have long to wait if they live in the City of Ventura. In less than a year they will be faced with at least two ballot measures and a slate of council candidates in the off-year municipal election.

In a unanimous vote last night, the Ventura City Council failed to adopt Stop Wal-Mart Ventura Coalition's anti-big box initiative and it will instead go on the ballot in the fall of next year. It will join the Ventura Citizens' Organization for Responsible Development (VCORD)'s view initiative for a full vote of the citizenry.

Council members all agreed the measure should be left to the voters to decide. "There are so many implications with land use, our tax base and the future of retail in our city. It's something that we need to let the citizens weigh in on. It could affect retail uses 20 years from now," Council member Ed Summers said.

The City Attorney's analysis of this amendment to the municipal code found it sound for the most part, with the possibilities for legal challenges only coming from its exclusion of wholesale discount stores and its retroactive clause.

It is one of the most tightly written anti-big box measures to go on a ballot. The ordinance would prevent a major retail project that sells goods and merchandise -- primarily for personal or household use -- and whose total sales floor area exceeds 90,000 square feet and which devotes more than three percent of the sales floor area to the sale of non-taxable merchandise such as food.

Wholesale club stores like Costco would be OK. Other stores such as IKEA or an electronics store, both on wishlists for Ventura, would also be allowed. Another Super Target would not and the ordinance could affect the ability of the existing one at the mall to expand.

Das Williams, a legislative analyst for CAUSE, explained that the exclusion for wholesale membership stores was in response to economic development concerns raised by city staff when they were first presented with a draft of the proposed ordinance. Costco is a store Ventura is one day hoping to attract.

Economic analysis from the city on the measure proved inconclusive. While it could discourage one set of investors, it might encourage another. It will serve to limit some consumer choices in the city and could drive shoppers to travel elsewhere.

THE COALITION RECENTLY PAID for its own study by two economists which concluded the city will not gain new sales tax revenue from a Wal-Mart and it will only cannibalize an existing retail market which is already saturated. "A major new retail facility has the potential to negatively impact current business owners since community needs are already being met," the study concludes.

Another anti-big box measure was soundly defeated by nearly 70 percent of Atascadero voters on Nov. 4. However, that city, which is struggling financially and now operating on its reserves, has less local retail available than Ventura within its city boundaries. It is also a staunchly conservative area, Williams said. It is not known yet exactly how much Wal-Mart invested to defeat the Atascadero measure, but "there was a decent amount of money spent," Williams said.

A poll conducted by the Stop Wal-Mart Ventura Coalition found that a majority of Venturans were not in favor of the retailer coming to Ventura. About 8,600 signed the petition to put it on the ballot.

Williams predicts a battle next fall. "It's going to take a lot of organizing for us. But I've operated a lot of signature campaigns in the past and I've never seen volunteers come out like they did in Ventura."

TUESDAY'S ELECTION results left me curiously unfulfilled.

As it became apparent that Barack Obama was going to become our next president, I found renewed faith in an electorate which looked past skin color and put its faith in an inspiring man with character and great vision.

I listened to the jubilation of my daughter and her friends, far away in college in a firmly red state, who left their dorm rooms and massed out on a field together hugging each other and screaming in absolute joy and amazement that someone had finally listened to them and their hopes for the world.

But late last night I also received emails from several dynamic people in the local gay community who I respect very much. They professed their very great sadness over the passage of Prop. 8 and it made me realize how very far we have to go before we can look past our differences to find common ground.

I have dear friends on both sides of the Prop. 8 issue. My friends in the Mormon community, which invested much money in the Yes on 8 effort, have historically endured misconceptions and persecution over their religion. I have recently defended their belief system to others who have belittled their faith because of the church's activities in the Yes on 8 campaign.

On the flip side, I was shocked to learn of the recent verbal -- and in one case physical -- harassment received by two friends on opposite sides of the county who were displaying No on 8 signs. There is great anguish in the gay community right now over this decision and my heart breaks for two wonderful women I know who were recently married.

Proposition 8 left us more divided than ever. I believe it was a great mistake.

AND FINALLY SD 19: The state senate race between Hannah-Beth Jackson and Tony Strickland remains undecided at this point in time. The district was drawn as a safe seat for Tom McClintock who has recently termed out. But recent gains in voter registration have given a slight advantage to the Democrats.

It is clear to me that the more progressive voices of Santa Barbara County, Ventura and Ojai were more vocal in their support of Hannah-Beth Jackson than the decidedly conservative and more numerous voices to the east were in embracing Tony Strickland. This put Jackson over the top by a razor-thin margin. She also received the majority of precinct votes, by a narrow fraction. Strickland took the early absentees.

There are 100,000 votes left to count in the three counties that encompass State Senate District 19. It could go either way. Late absentee and provisional voters make up this group and in recent elections they have tended to vote more like precinct voters and not the early absentees which favor conservatives. Provisional voters often favor Democrats. I am crossing my fingers for a decisive victory for Jackson.

Part of the rancor in this particular race was due to the way the district is drawn. Very conservative sections of Ventura and Los Angeles counties were thrown in with progressive coastal voters. It is for this reason that I supported the redistricting measure Prop. 11, which appears to have passed.

As we move forward in these difficult times, I hope we can learn to work together for common goals. Divisive issues sap our strength for the things that really matter.

Update: Not only have all the county school superintendents endorsed Hannah-Beth Jackson, but so have the Ventura County Star and the Los Angeles Times, along with the Ventura County Reporter and Santa Barbara Independent (the newspaper with the greatest circulation in Santa Barbara County.)

From the Ventura County Star: "The Star endorses Hannah-Beth Jackson based on her superior record of achievement in the Assembly and her ideas for moving the state forward."

From the Los Angeles Times: "The Times has no problem making its choice. We wholeheartedly back Jackson. The environmental and education credentials she built up as a member of the Assembly will be put to good use in the Senate, and we're counting on her to help work through California's budget mess."

IN AN UNPRECEDENTED SHOW of support, all 19 of Ventura County's school superintendents have endorsed State Senate District 19 candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson. The announcement was made at a press conference held at the Ventura County Superintendent of Schools Office on Monday.

"She has walked the talk consistently in the eyes of the superintendents of this county," Ventura Unified School District Superintendent Trudy Arriaga said. "We know that the health and well being of this nation is based on how well our children are doing. Hannah-Beth Jackson has most certainly shown that she also understands that and cares consistently about the education and well being of the children of this state."

A county-wide endorsement of this nature has never been done for a candidate before, Arriaga said. It demonstrates the incredible support Jackson has within the education community.

As her constituent when she was in the Assembly, I often saw Jackson at local school events and she is also a long-time member of the Ventura Education Partnership's honorary board. She authored legislation to give teachers a tax credit to help with their numerous out-of-pocket expenses and, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, she passed several pieces of legislation to help keep students safe. She has widespread support from school boards across the district and has won numerous awards from the education community.

Her opponent in the race, Tony Strickland, has received very few endorsements from the education community.

EDUCATION IS THE CORNERSTONE of all Jackson's stump speeches in this race and she correctly points out it is one of the keys to building our economy.

"We need to make sure we're giving students a 21st century education because they're going to be competing in a global marketplace," Jackson said. "And if we educate our children properly we're going to be able to reduce the number of young people who end up in a life of crime. We spend $45,000 a year incarcerating people in prison; we spend $7,800 educating them. This is wrong and we need to do better."

Debbie Golden, Ventura Unified School District Board of Trustees member, had high praise for our local legislator.

"When Hannah-Beth was in the Assembly, I had reason to call many times and ask for help. She always returned my calls. Not only would she return my calls, she would work with us so that we could make sure we were doing the best for the children of our community. That's just one reason why all five board members of the Ventura Unified School District are supporting Hannah-Beth Jackson," Golden said.

"I also called Mr. Strickland's phone many times. He never returned my phone calls."

I RECENTLY READ a book which theorizes why so many Americans vote against their own social and economic interests.

The premise of "What's the matter with Kansas?" by Thomas Frank is that values voters are lured to the polls to vote for Republicans by promises to stop abortion and gay marriage, roll back taxes, and above all, stop those leftist elites. This is often delivered with a sensibility they believe will appeal to middle America, he writes.

"Today's Republicans are doing what the Whigs did in the 1840s: putting on backwoods accents, telling the world about their log-cabin upbringings, and raging against the overeducated elites," Frank writes.

Does Sarah Palin's debate performance come to mind here?

Yet, he writes, every single time we wake up the next morning after election day and realize we didn't get what we asked for. "It's a French Revolution in reverse -- one in which the sans-culottes pour down the streets demanding more power for the aristocracy."

There are some truths within these pages. Four years ago after the election we were greeted by George Bush's plan to spend his new political capital by privatizing Social Security, much to the glee of Wall Street. Can you imagine right now where your money would be if it had all been invested in the stock market? Right down there with your 401K plan.

Religious leaders did indeed find themselves let down and that saddens me. Karl Rove, who courted the religious vote for Bush, was recently shredded in a book by conservative Christian author David Kuo. "National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as 'ridiculous,' 'out of control' and just plain 'goofy,'" Kuo wrote. He was the number-two person in the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. His boss also quit and leveled similar charges.

INSTEAD, FRANK WRITES, the rich got richer. Estate taxes for the wealthy were repealed, big corporations received tax breaks, workplace safety programs were attacked, and labor unions -- who really represent middle America -- were demonized.

Author Christopher Lasch, no lover of liberal causes, once pointed out that "Reagan made himself the champion of 'traditional values' but there was no evidence he regarded their restoration as a high priority. What he really cared about was the revival of the unregulated capitalism of the '20s: the repeal of the New Deal."

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was grilled Thursday on Capitol Hill about that unregulated capitalism, which most experts agree significantly contributed to the economic meltdown. "I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms," Greenspan said.

I WRITE ALL THIS to preface a YouTube video which was made by our own Ventura City Councilman Carl Morehouse. I asked Morehouse right away if he'd read "What's the Matter with Kansas?" and indeed he had.

"I'm a fan of country music," Morehouse said. "but I have become extremely outraged at the bent some of the stations have taken with regard to political biases, particularly toward the 'right.' I'm also outraged that the Republicans in particular use language to manipulate the working man -- primarily blue collar -- and have them vote for emotional issues only to shaft them later with their pro-big business policies and simultaneous destruction of any social safety nets once the jobs are gone. So to that end, I decided to write my own country tune about that deception."

Carl's video can be viewed above.

And why Tony Strickland will never have my vote

IT WAS A TYPICAL frantic morning at my house. My daughter, always a sleepyhead, was running late once again. We grabbed her backpack and dashed out the door to our car for the ride to Mound Elementary School in Ventura where she was a fifth grader.

Pulling up to the school we found our car enveloped by a thick fog which I had assumed was weather related. My daughter got out in the middle of it and waved goodbye. I drove home, pulled in the garage and noticed something very odd about my vehicle: it was completely covered in a sticky film.

Hours later I had a sick child holding a note from her principal.

What I had mistaken for fog was actually a cloud of Lorsban, a powerful pesticide which had been banned by the EPA for use in homes because of its neurological effects on children. The citrus operation next to the school had used a speed sprayer during school hours and sent a cloud over the campus. Dozens of children and adults were sickened that day. Testing showed it was all over playground equipment, outdoor eating areas and inside classrooms.

To our horror we discovered there was little we could do to prevent it from happening again to our children or anyone else's. We needed help.

Hannah-Beth Jackson, our Assemblywoman at the time, was quick to respond. She was the only one to come talk to parents. With the help and blessing of the agricultural community, Jackson crafted bipartisan legislation to protect schoolchildren from such incidents. It passed and was signed into law.

This incident taught me something very important about the world: stick up for what you believe in, listen to your heart and don't be afraid of asking for change.

JACKSON, WHO IS NOW running to be our state senator, has spent a lifetime standing up for what is right. As a former deputy district attorney, she put criminals behind bars. She helped to establish a battered women's shelter in Santa Barbara, ran a thriving law business for 22 years in Ventura where she advocated for women's and children's issues, and spent six years in the Assembly, sticking up for her constituents and sponsoring highly effective legislation on their behalf which was signed into law. She voted for billions of dollars in tax relief for middle-income families. And even though neighboring Simi Valley wasn't in her district, she authored a bill to help get the toxic chemical perchlorate out of their drinking water.

While in the Assembly she was part of a bipartisan group which worked together for true state budget reform.

I've found Jackson to be tenacious about doing the right thing. This is in stark contrast to her opponent in the State Senate race, Tony Strickland, who voted against the legislation I just cited to keep our children safe and our water clean and has a long history of siding with big corporations against measures to protect our children, as well as our planet. He even voted against Jackson's bill to provide health coverage for children with cancer in clinical trials.

If our legislators don't vote to protect the weakest among us, who will they protect?

When Jackson's senate campaign opened its Ventura office months ago, I was the first one at their door asking to volunteer. Not long ago, they asked if I would consent to being filmed for a commercial they were planning on the Mound pesticide incident. I immediately said yes. The commercial began airing this week. I have linked to it above. Click on the arrow to play it.

I don't forget it when somebody helps my community as much as Hannah-Beth Jackson did. I want to give her another chance to fight for my family.

WHAT DO BOTH State Senate District 19 Candidate Tony Strickland and consumer crusader Erin Brockovich have in common besides an endorsement deal? Both have ties to shaky companies which are misleading voters, aren't turning a profit and have no proven technology.

I received the following press release from Hannah-Beth Jackson's campaign today:

Tony Strickland launched a new radio ad this week in his attempt to re-invent himself as an alternative energy executive. The ad quotes Erin Brockovich and the CEO of a little known company called Save the World Air (STWA), both providing testimonials to Strickland's independence and leadership in alternative energy.

What listeners don't know is that STWA was charged with stock fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In December 2001, the SEC charged the company with engaging in a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the market for STWA stock. STWA was charged with leading a fraudulent promotional campaign to disseminate false and misleading information about a product they were marketing called "Zero Emissions Fuel Saver," a "fuel molecule atomizer device" that supposedly reduces diesel and gasoline emissions by placing magnets on an engine's fuel line.

The SEC charged that this fraud inflated STWA's market cap to $218 million, and allowed former STWA CEO Jeffrey Muller to pocket up to $9 million in undisclosed restricted stock sales.

On November 15, 2005, the U.S. District Court in New York City ordered Muller to pay $7.5 million in disgorgement and $100,000 in civil penalties.

In 2006, Erin Brockovich was Vice President of Environmental Affairs at STWA and attended conferences and events promoting their "Zero Emissions Fuel Saver" product. Brockovich brought a great deal of press attention to the company, which traded for pennies on the Over The Counter market.

THE MAGICAL MAGNET PRODUCT quite simply does not work. The EPA has rejected licenses for similar technology 12 times. The Discovery Channel show Mythbusters tested the technology and rejected it as hype. STWA even hired the Rand Corporation to assess the magnets - and RAND said there was no evidence that it increase gas mileage.

"It is pretty ironic that Strickland, who has based his candidacy on his involvement in a wave energy corporation with no technology, no employees and no revenue, would use a company convicted of stock fraud as an endorser," stated Hannah-Beth Jackson's campaign manager Sandra Sanchez. "But since this company had no problem lying to investors, I guess lying to the voters is no big deal either."

It would appear I am not the only one doing commercials these days. Celebrity legal scout Brockovich popped up in one, too. I'll leave it to the other blogs to speculate about her motives. But I did send her an email, which she of course hasn't answered:

Dear Erin,

I always considered you to be a maverick of sorts, somebody who sticks up for the little guy. I just saw the commercial you did with Tony Strickland and I am so disappointed right now.

I am one of the parents at Mound Elementary in Ventura who had a child sickened by a serious pesticide overspray incident. We had nearly 40 people fall ill that day. Strickland's opponent in the race, Hannah-Beth Jackson, wrote a bill to make sure this would never happen again and Strickland voted against it!

In case you didn't know, Tony Strickland has taken more than $55,000 in contributions from oil and chemical companies and consistently votes to put the interests of corporate polluters ahead of the health of our families.
 
He opposed legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect children's health from pollutants, re-authorize the state's recycling program, ban carcinogenic pesticides on school grounds, increase penalties for pesticide violations near schools, ban clear-cutting of forests, ban mercury in children's toys, establish standards to handle toxic perchlorate, and many other environmentally friendly bills.

What kind of guy votes AGAINST all that? He has the worst possible rating from environmental groups. I could name countless bills he voted against that would help clean up our planet.

I know you're busy and famous and probably won't take the time to respond to a mother in Ventura. But just know that I lost faith in somebody I thought was a hero.

Marie Lakin

For a look at what other blogs are saying, go here and here.

ONE OF MY MISSIONS in writing this blog has been to put an occasional spotlight on those in Ventura who have devoted their time and efforts to community service. These good men and women work tirelessly behind the scenes and are the absolute pinnacle of everything that is good about America. They don't want glory. They just want to make a difference in their own quiet ways.

I know many such people and I am honored to call them friends.

One of the things I have always admired about Barack Obama is his devotion to community service. In 1985, after finishing up college, he put his plans for law school on hold to take a job with the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Things were tough on the south side of Chicago. Workers had been laid off from their jobs in the steel mills and Obama was hired by the local churches to help these folks and their families find housing, job training and other services. He then went on to Harvard Law School, the Illinois State Senate and the U.S. Senate.

BUT INSTEAD OF LAUDING Obama for this unselfish period of serving the poor, last week both vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani mocked his work as a community organizer and while doing so offended those in community service everywhere.

I was, for a period, undecided about who I would vote for in this presidential election. I admired John McCain in his 2000 presidential run and thought him a man of honor. However, my first choice for president had always been Joe Biden. I was as thrilled to see Biden added to Obama's ticket as I was dismayed to see Sarah Palin added to McCain's.

I have no patience for this belittlement of our public service community for political gain. Palin's words could just as well be aimed at my friend Sherry Cash whose unselfish work helping the homeless Downtown has been an inspiration to me. She recently won an award from the Turning Point Foundation. Or it could've been aimed at City Corps, a group of amazing people who are working to turn around the lives of at-risk youth. Or maybe she would denigrate my friends and colleagues in the Ventura Education Partnership who raised and gave away over $100,000 to the schools last year.

Community organizers are the heart of our democracy and the social work they do often takes the burden off our local governments.

I will continue with my mission on this blog to focus on people in this community who do good work. And maybe in my own very small way I can work to counteract this message that serving your community is somehow an unworthy step in the climb to higher office.

Update: The Ventura County Star's Sacramento Bureau Chief Timm Herdt did an excellent piece today on the Ventura County Republican Central Committee's acceptance of a $50,000 contribution from Altria (parent company of Philip Morris) and their intention to use it to help Tony Strickland.

More updates: Read Star reporter Theresa Rochester's story about top Strickland aide Joel Angeles' altercation with anti-tobacco protesters and how a 67-year-old retired minister was knocked to the ground and injured. Angeles is one of the volunteer workers for Strickland's company, GreenWave. The case is now with the state Attorney General after sheriff's investigators recommended charges be filed.

WHEN STATE LEGISLATORS did their grand gerrymandering of legislative districts back in 2001, one of the most egregious errors was the odd mishmash that is Senate District 19. It encompasses Ventura County, Santa Barbara County and part of Santa Clarita.

The Santa Barbara coastline and Ventura, which were once represented by Jack O'Connell, fell under the vastly reconfigured district of Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), one of the most conservative members of the Legislature.

The more moderate voices of Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Barbara and Ojai have felt distinctly left out ever since. No wonder then that as McClintock leaves his seat after being termed out, a strong Democratic contender, Hannah-Beth Jackson, has emerged to take on the far-right Tony Strickland for SD-19.

I have been an admirer of Jackson's for a long time. She owned a business in Ventura for 22 years and was an extremely effective legislator while in the Assembly and a champion for every cause I value -- education, the environment, consumer protection, public safety and women's issues.

I was also one of the Mound Elementary School parents who in 2000 found myself with a young child sickened at school by a serious pesticide overspray incident from a neighboring orchard. The farmer was substantially fined. In response to our pleas, Jackson brought together environmental and agricultural advocates who are frequently adversaries in support of legislation that empowered county agricultural commissioners to impose conditions on the use of pesticide applications near schools and other sensitive sites.

Tony Strickland voted against it.

I wanted to avoid overtly political statements on this blog, but a succession of mailers from the Strickland camp has sent me over the edge.

STRICKLAND IS NOW CALLING HIMSELF an alternative energy executive in an obvious attempt to diffuse an extremely poor environmental record while in the Assembly. With a lifetime score of nearly zero from the California League of Conservation Voters, Strickland is no friend of the environment. He has opposed legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect children's health from pollutants, and re-authorize the state's recycling program, among many other environmentally friendly measures. He even opposed a bill to increase California's supply of clean, renewable energy.

But wait, isn't that what Strickland's new company supposedly does? You can read more about it in a story by Star reporter Timm Herdt. The truth is that the company, formed by a group of Republican real estate developers and staffed for free by Strickland's campaign workers, has not had success even pulling a permit to study the issue in California. Their initial permit requests were deemed insufficient by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and are still pending. FERC is carefully scrutinizing these filings to prevent speculative claims.

"I don't think they're going to get it," Fort Bragg, Calif. environmental activist Laurel Krause told me. She led a protest against the greenlighting of wave energy projects without proper environmental review and citizen input. Strickland's company has applied for a project there. Wave energy research is still in its infancy and causing concern among environmental groups because of its untested effects on the ocean environment, she said.

Strickland was brought into the project, according to a quote from company president Wayne Burkamp in the Fort Bragg Advocate News, for his political pull.

BUT HE'S LISTING HIS OCCUPATION as alternative energy executive on the ballot, even though he's yet to make a dime from the company because it is obviously not yet generating revenue. It also figures prominently on all his advertising.

Now I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and would, except that this is not the first time his integrity has been called into question. According to a Los Angeles Times story, both Strickland and his wife, Audra, were investigated by the Ventura County District Attorney's Office for transferring campaign donations to businesses owned by each other. And while they were cleared of wrongdoing, eyebrows remain raised in local political circles.

I will also add into the equation that Strickland has accepted thousands of dollars of donations from tobacco companies, alcoholic beverage companies, and gambling interests.

According to the Institute for Tobacco Policy, he has accepted almost $85,000 in direct contributions from tobacco companies. He then voted against two measures which would make it harder for minors to buy cigarettes.

Ventura and State Senate District 19 deserve better than this.