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Fundraising totals are now available for all of the candidates in CA-26 and Tony Strickland is the big winner.

Tony Strickland: The Republican state senator from California raised a huge $781,000 in the first quarter for his run at a competitive open House seat in the 26th district, besting both Democratic state Assemblywoman Julia Brownley and independent Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks by half a million dollars. If the GOP can snatch this seat, it would go a long way toward stopping some of the bleeding after a tough redistricting draw.

Here is more about Julia Brownley, and David Cruz Thayne.

A clickable link for Linda Park’s fundraising totals is here.

There is little doubt that Strickland is up and the Democrat Brownley is surprisingly down.

But, Linda Parks is up first with cable television ads and undoubtedly some campaign cash will be raised and spent by Strickland and Brownley.

First round of the fundraising wars goes to Tony Strickland tough.

I love it when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee does the mocking work for me.

Congressional candidate Linda Parks (CA-26), who has switched her voter registration from Democrat to Republican to Independent, has refused to commit to clear positions on the majority of issues, including the House Republican budget that ends Medicare. Instead, Parks dodges questions with lofty rhetoric about her “independence.” But in her new television ad, Parks gives her most straightforward answer yet — her favorite ice cream flavor is Rocky Road. While Californians finally have an answer to the pressing ice cream issue, they are still left wondering which Linda Parks is running for Congress.

“The only question Linda Parks hasn’t dodged is her favorite ice cream flavor, but Congress is not a Baskin Robbins. It’s time for Parks to come clean and be honest with California voters about where she stands on the issues that affect them,” said Amber Moon of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Linda Parks may stand with Rocky Road now, but judging by her record she’ll switch camps when Baskin Robbins comes out with its newest flavor, Political Opportunist Sundae.”

Linda Parks still has not said how she would vote on the policies of House Republicans that harm the middle class and seniors, including the controversial Ryan budget that ends Medicare, extending the Bush tax cuts for millionaires, private accounts for Social Security, and their assault on reproductive rights for California women. Parks has also declined to say which candidate she will support for president.

You see the Democrats are more worried about Linda Parks and having their anointed party candidate, California Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, lose in the June “Top Two” primary election than the Republican California State Senator Tony Strickland.

And, they should be worried.

With four Democrat candidates on the ballot, and the fact that Brownley lived outside the Congressional District until a couple of months ago, Brownley may struggle to come in second to the likely top vote getter Strickland.

I wonder when Brownley will hit the cable television air?

She raised a few hundred thousand and she better start spending it.

Here is Park’s television ad again:

 

A very good fundraising quarter for Tony Strickland.

From the press release:

Senator Tony Strickland, a candidate for Congress in California’s open 26th Congressional District announced today that he raised $770,000 in the first campaign reporting period and will report $720,000 cash on hand.

“I’m very humbled by the tremendous support our campaign has received in just 11 weeks,” said Strickland. “Our fast start will allow us to deliver our message of job creation and uniting our community around economic policies that provide hope for families struggling to make ends meet.”

Although California’s 26th Congressional district is rated by the respected Cook Political Report and Larry Sabato’s “Crystal Ball” as a true “toss-up” race, Strickland begins the campaign with a large advantage having already represented every part of the Congressional District during his service in the State Assembly and State Senate.

Running in California’s new top-two primary system means that Strickland, as the only candidate with significant name identification, will be able to save a significant amount of resources for the general election in November.

“Strickland’s first quarter total is more than two and a half times what the top Democrat front-runner reported and is among the top first quarters for any candidate in an open seat in recent U.S. history,” said respected California fundraiser Jeff Miller.

It certainly appears that campaign cash is not going to be a problem in Tony Strickland’s campaign for Congress.

But, be assured, Democrat Assemblywoman Julia Brownley will add to her campaign kitty and there will be a campaign media – athon in the coming weeks.

My friend Scott Lay over at Around The Capitol has his thoughts about the Democrats, Republicans and Linda Parks (No Party Preference) in the 26th California Congressional district.

Remember the 26th CD has the following party registration numbers:

• Dem: 40.9%
• Rep: 35.2%
• NPP: 19.0%

CD26 is the kind of race that gives us political geeks the tingles. Republican State Senator Tony Strickland brings his patented Republican credentials into the district to face off against equally Democratic west side Assemblymember Julia Brownley. At least, that’s the way the DCCC and NRCC see the race. However, on the Democratic side, expect to hear Brownley labeled a “carpetbagger” by Garry South-advised David Cruz Thayne. However, with harbor commissioner Jess Herrera also playing for the anti-Brownley and Latino vote, expect them to split that vote and roll out the carpet for Brownley to reach November. Both, however, will probably take a share of the 19% indie vote.

On the Republican side, moderate Republican and Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks decided to not try to out-Republican Strickland, and dropped her party registration and thus was allowed to file as “No Party Preference.” To reach the top-two among the six-candidates in the race, I would set the bar for Parks at around 35%, which will be extraordinaily difficult to achieve. In 2010, 40% of this district cast votes for Tony Strickland against John Chiang for Controller. The Democrats will get between 40-50% of the vote here, with the top candidate likely landing at around 30%.  If Strickland gets 30% and any Democrat hits 30%, which I see as likely, there just isn’t room for Parks in November.

I agree in part, but Linda Parks is a dogged campaigner and will put her environmentally charged up foot soldiers to work. Her major problem is that there a lot of voters out of the “Green” Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village area. And, these other voters will be split between constituencies – the Democrats and Latino voters.

California State Senator Tony Strickland will have the money and the organization from the GOP to easily survive the June Primary election. He appears to be raising money and coasting at present.

But, Tony had better hope that Linda Park’s reluctance to pledge her Congressional organizational vote to Rep Nancy Pelosi will motivate enough Democrats to fund and organize for Democrat California Assemblywoman Julia Brownley.

I do think Strickland would have a more difficult general election race against Parks than the Democrat, Brownley.

If Linda Parks had re-registered as a Democrat, which she had been before moving to Thousand Oaks, I wonder if Julia Brownley would have entered the race? Oh well…..

According to a new poll released by Timm Herdt at the Ventura County Star.

There’s a very long way to go between here and there, but as the campaign season gets under way, Supervisor Linda Parks of Thousand Oaks has a very good chance of making history this year as independent running for Congress. Which is another way of saying that she could actually win.

That conclusion is based on a poll conducted by Parks’ campaign team of Gorton Blair Biggs International, headed by former Pete Wilson strategist George Gorton, whose storied career in political consulting includes a tie-in with Watergate as a youth-vote adviser to President Richard Nixon’s 1972 presidential campaign (he paid someone to spy on anti-war protesters) and a major role in helping to elect Boris Yeltsin as president of the Russian Federation (the film “Spinning Boris” was based on that, with Jeff Goldblum playing the role of Gorton).

Parks’ team yesterday shared with me a polling memo in the 26th Congressional District. Although short on details of the actual poll, the memo makes three things clear: Parks is now running in a strong second place in the primary, none of the four Democratic candidates is particularly well known, and that the Thousand Oaks supervisor has a statistically significant lead in a hypothetical November matchup against Republican Tony Strickland.

Some details: The poll surveyed 361 likely primary voters from Feb. 26-28 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent. The results, according to the memo, show Parks in a “strong second place” in the primary. If she were to finish second, the polling results (weighted to reflect the expected partisan makeup of a general election turnout) show her leading Strickland 42.6 percent to 35.5 percent in a head-to-head race in November.

Granted the race is in the early stages and this is a proprietary poll.

But, there are some lessons here for Republicans and Democrats.

If the Democrats wish to have a nominee in the general election, they had better coalesce around one candidate and that candidate is likely California Assemblywoman Julia Brownley. Why there are four democrats running in this race and why a democrat incumbent in Congress, namely Rep Brad Sherman, did not run in this marginally Democratic Congressional District is anyone’s guess.

For the Republicans to hold retiring Rep Elton Gallegly’s seat, they will have to broaden their base and campaign heavily in Latino-centric Oxnard. Tony Strickland cannot allow the Ventura County Public Employee Unions and other unions to run rough-shod over him in Republican voter deficit City of Oxnard and to some degree Ventura.

Linda Parks will win some Republican votes in Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village, Strickland cannot rely on large margins there – which he ahs enjoyed in the past.

But, again, this race is early and the Democrats will surely start attacking Parks soon.

If not, then Strickland better get a new pair of shoes and start walking the streets of Oxnard and Ventura early.

Here is the final cast of candidates for the primarily Ventura County based 26th Congressional District:

• Julia Brownley, Democrat and current member of the 41st California Assembly District
• Albert Maxwell Goldberg, Democrat and realtor from Ventura
• Jess Herrera, Democrat and current Oxnard Harbor District commissioner
• Linda Parks, independent (no party preference) and current Ventura County supervisor
• Tony Strickland, Republican and current California State Senator
• David Cruz Thayne, Democratic businessman from Westlake Village

This will be a very competitive race with the Primary election in June where the top two vote getters moving on to face off in the general election in November.

According to the Ventura County recorder’s office, as of Jan. 3, 40.85 percent of voters in the 26th Congressional District are registered as Democrats, 35.22 percent are registered Republican and 2.3 percent are independent. The rest are registered with parties other than Democratic or Republican.