It's probably coincidental that this would come up precisely at the time that Rush Limbaugh's status as a political figurehead is all the buzz in national political circles, but the Ventura County Democratic Party today announced the kickoff of a weekly radio show on KVTA in Ventura that will spotlight progressive issues.
The show will air every Friday, beginning tomorrow, from 11 a.m. to noon. It will be a weekly fixture of the daily, 11 a.m.-noon "Locals Only" show, hosted by Kelli McLay. Democratic activists David Atkins and Brian Leshon will join her on Fridays.
The inaugural guest will be Democratic Assemblyman Pedro Nava, who represents Ventura and much of Oxnard.
County party activists are obviously excited at this development. In an e-mail to members, they urged Democrats to join the station's "VIP club" for listeners. "Tell them you are joining because the station is beginning to cater to the Democratic majority in the county," the e-mail suggests.
Since politics on the radio has long been dominated by conservatives (Limbaugh being Exhibit A), one can perhaps excuse their exuberant misstatement. While registered Democrats now constitute a plurality of registered voters in the county, with 40 percent, they are still a ways from claiming a majority.
Timm,
The email said Democratic majority, not a registered Democratic majority.
According to the graphic in the top left of your page President Barack Obama win Ventura County with 55% of the vote. That means a majority of the voters in Ventura County prefer Democrats over Republicans. In the past the majority of voters often supported the Republican ticket at the top. The numbers on your blog show that Ventura County is even more Democratic than the nation as a whole.
That is not to say that Republicans won't one day regain their majority.
Hey, any chance you are going to mention that I reported that Assembly Member Strickland opened an account to run for statewide office?
Brian,
I don't think a professional journalist with Timm's experience and integrity needs to be corrected. His statement was factual. It's his job to report the facts, not to blog rah rah.
There are currently more registered Democrats than Republicans in VC, but I believe to technically claim a "majority" would require 50% + 1.
And while VC voters did indeed prefer the Democratic Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, they unfortunately they did not prefer the Democratic candidates in several down ticket partisan races: the 17th & 19th Senate Districts or the 37th & 38th Assembly Districts.
The 19th & 17th Senate Districts are held by Reps, the 23rd by a Dem. In the Assembly, the 37 & 38 by Reps, and 35 & 41 by Dems. That means Republicans hold a 4 to 3 majority of partisan legislature seats in the county.
And while ground has been gained in the past 5 years by Democrats picking up "non-partisan" seats,
there are still more Reps than Dems that hold those positions.
The Dems have made great strides the past 5 years, and we have much to celebrate. However, we still have more work to be do before we can claim a true majority in the county, so let's not make the same infamous mistake as W. by claiming "mission accomplished" prematurely.
Laura,
In almost all of America no party is in the majority if all we count is registered voters. But many DTS voters prefer candidates from one of the two parties. If they claimed that a majority of registered voters registered for the Democratic Party I would agree with Timm's correction more. But they basically said it was cool that a radio station would put on a show that is more likely to support President Barack Obama, rather than another conservative radio show, being that a majority of Ventura County voters support the president and voted for him.
I never said the majority was permanent. Of course in politics the pendulum swings back and forth.
The legislative districts you counted cross county lines and make it hard to use as a barometer to determine the leanings of the electorate.
But in the presidential election Ventura County voted for the Democratic candidate by a wider margin than the nation as a total.
According to the artificial standard you seem to support, even if Democrats had 49% of the registered voters and dominated every legislative seat it wouldn't constitute a majority. By the way, I don't think that is likely to happen as many voters, regardless of how they vote, don't like to register for a party.
Timm is a man of integrity and skill but I never questioned or debated either of those qualities.
Looking at data from the 1980's I don't care if Republicans didn't have 50.1% of the registered voters in Ventura County they were obviously the majority party when their leader earned 69% of the vote.
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