HARDBALL ABORTION POLITICS
On the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortions in the United States, pro-life activists staged protests and vigils across the country on Thursday. One of them was in Thousand Oaks, where 37th Assembly District candidate Mike Robinson joined about 90 others at a "Prayer for Life" vigil.
Later in the day, someone distributed fliers — on plain white paper, with no indication of authorship — at office buildings along Thousand Oaks Boulevard. The headline: "Audra Strickland Supported by Abortion Doctor." The flier asserts that the Audra Strickland campaign has received contributions from Los Alamitos Race Course, owned by Dr. Edward Allred, a man villified by anti-abortion activists as "an abortion doctor."
Robinson campaign spokesman Jonathan Tee said he had no knowledge of the fliers, and in fact didn't learn of their existence until I called him this morning to inquire.
Similarly, Strickland's spokesman Chip Englander said he first learned of the flier when I called him late Thursday afternoon. No other calls had been received, he said, despite the fact that the flier urges readers to "call Audra and demand she return the money today" and lists her campaign office's phone number.
Both Robinson and Strickland are pro-life on the abortion issue; the third major candidate in the Republican primary, Jeff Gorell, is pro-choice.
The accusation is a reprise of accusations leveled against Audra's husband, Assemblyman Tony Strickland, by ultra-conservative U.S. Senate candidate Danney Ball. On his website , Ball asks, "How can someone claim to be pro-life and then take money from someone like this?"
At the time Ball made these accusations, Tony Strickland was a presumed candidate for the U.S. Senate, but he backed off the day of the filing deadline.
One could question whether the issue is political fair play, given that the contributions in question come from a company — an Orange County horse-racing track — whose business has nothing to do with abortions or medical care of any sort. But on the facts, at least, Ball's accusation against Tony Strickland is correct. Strickland, a member of the Assembly committee that hears all gambling-related legislation, has received substantial money from the racetrack over the years, most recently a $2,500 check last April.
But Audra Strickland has not received any contributions from the racetrack. She did receive $350 from an outfit called the Los Alamitos Bay Group, but that is an advertising agency in Long Beach that has no affiliation with the racetrack.
I asked Tee if he thought the issue of Tony Strickland accepting contributions from Los Alamitos Race Course was fair game for criticism. "In a general sense, who supports a candidate is a factor," he said. "I feel that candidates should be held accountable to the special interests that support them."
