(The second in an occasional series of articles highlighting California legislative districts and candidates that could provide Democrats with a vital 2/3 majority.)
On the drive out from Santa Monica to Simi Valley, there’s a moment when you know that you’ve left Los Angeles County and ventured into Ventura. Suddenly, the greenery recedes away, the canyon walls rise, and the scene becomes positively dramatic. If you let your mind wander, you could picture yourself in the middle of a John Ford movie backdrop or a national monument somewhere in Utah, despite being just 35 miles from downtown LA.
I was headed out to a fundraiser, driving along the 118 Freeway, which area transportation poohbahs see fit to remind you is named the “Ronald Reagan Freeway” about every 8/10th of a mile. Astonishingly enough, this was a Democratic fundraiser. For a candidate seeking a seat held by Tom McClintock, arguably the most rock-ribbed conservative in the entire state. And it’s a seat Democrats can win. Things are changing along the Ronald Reagan Freeway.
If you want to look at it statistically, there’s no better resource than ortcutt’s fantastic rundown. The raw numbers are pretty clear. Over the last 5 years, Senate District 19, serving Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, along with a sliver of LA County at Santa Clarita, has gone from a 7-point Republican registration advantage to just over a 4-point one, one of the larger moves in the whole state. The state’s districts were designed not to have any variability, and yet that’s what’s happening. And this is not just about registration. Feinstein and Boxer both carried this district, and in 2004 Bush carried it by a mere two points. And that was before his disastrous second term. For this and other reasons, the demographics are changing here.
SD-19 (here’s a map) covers major areas like Santa Clarita in LA County, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Camarillo (hello outlet malls) and San Buenavento in Ventura, and large sections of Santa Barbara County like the city of Santa Barbara. Far more of the district is located in Ventura County, however, and the area has seen a migration of sorts, as residents priced out of the wealthier Santa Barbara housing market have moved in. And Ventura County Democrats have been relentless. I have seen their work up close; my region as an AD delegate stretches up through this district, and I have seen presentations of the innovative efforts that were instrumental in closing the registration gap. These shifts did not happen by accident. Sure, the different socioeconomic shifts played a part, as well as the failed leadership of the President and an incumbent State Senator who values budget numbers in a ledger far more than constituent services. But more than that, they were the work of aggressive new tactics. One of these programs is Vote Blue Committee Central Coast, designed to register and bring to the polls 13,900 new Democrats in 2008. The group is targeting new residents, building a reliable, locally-based voter file, and encouraging vote-by-mail. This is the kind of new tactics we need to see replicated throughout California to realize the goals of a true 58-county strategy.
This is why I’m excited about SD-19, regardless of who ultimately runs in the general election. On the Republican side, Tom McClintock is a termed-out incumbent who is already raising money for yet another statewide run, this time for the Board of Equalization. I’d be absolutely shocked if this committed conservative would go back on core ideology and decide to run a third term, should the ballot initiative pass and allow him to do so. Anyway, there’s already a candidate, last year’s State Controller nominee Tony Strickland. He has the signed endorsement of every member of the Republican Caucus. He’s looking to join his wife, an Assemblywoman, back in Sacramento. But he’s really just looking for something to do until Elton Gallegly retires from the Congress. There’s no burning desire to serve the public here, just a resume-builder until Strickland graduates to the seat he thinks he’s entitled to.
Which is why I think it’s healthy to have two excellent candidates in a primary, raising the profile of Democratic values, fighting for the right to take down Strickland next November. We all know about Hannah-Beth Jackson from her incredible work at Speak Out California and her tireless advocacy of progressive ideals. Let me tell you a little bit about Jim Dantona, who’s been in the race about four months and who you may not know as much about. First of all, Ventura County Democratic activists in the area pushed very hard for him to run. I usually give latitude to the locals on the ground for determining who is their best candidate to serve their district. In this case, Dantona has a resume that is undeniably impressive. After a brief baseball career with the Chicago Cubs in 1969, he taught elementary school before spending 10 years as chief of staff to longtime Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti. Later, he founded an organization called “Baseballers Against Drugs” to teach kids the importance of staying clean and addiction-free. And he’s a single parent of three grown children.
I attended a fundraiser for Dantona last Thursday, featuring longtime friend and former Maryland Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. The blogger Mark Gage at Conejo Valley Democrat, who I met at the event, has an excellent writeup. Dantona likes to style himself a “centrist,” and I have no illusions that he’ll be with the most progressive elements of the party on every issue. But I will say this. The three main points in his stump speech were jobs, health care for every Californian, and scrapping No Child Left Behind. As centrism goes, I’d say he’s more Tip O’Neill than Joe Lieberman. And he didn’t have a bad word to say about Hannah-Beth Jackson, which to me is crucial.
I’m agnostic about the primary, other than thinking it’s very good for the Democratic Party in this area to have two proud Democrats discussing important issues that people in this district haven’t heard about for 8 years. The locals clearly see this as a terrific opportunity to change the seat and get halfway to that elusive 2/3 majority in the Senate. And it would obviously set Republicans spinning in their McMansions to see a Democrat representing the towns along the Ronald Reagan Freeway.
