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Updated With Video: CA-26: Linda Parks Avoids Question Who She Supports for President
Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks and No Party Preference Candidate for Congress
Yes, she did it again – Linda Parks avoided a political question, just as had earlier.Parks, who represents the Conejo Valley on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, switched her registration from Republican to “no party preference” for this race. She also has been a registered Democrat. In the congressional race, she’s resisted attempts to pin down her partisan loyalties.
At an earlier debate, she would not say which party’s candidate she would support for Speaker of the House of Representatives. On Thursday, Herdt asked her how she planned to vote for president of the United States, and she refused to answer that, too.
“The reason I’m running is because I’m rejecting the model that pits us against them,” Parks said. “I am truly an independent, and I reject trying to label me.”
As, I said before, this congressional race IS a PARTISAN one and this will not play well with voters.
How does one expect a politician NOT to have an opinion as to who to vote for President?
Her reticence to choose smacks of political opportunism, no?
Update:
Here is video of the entire Latino forum from yesterday:
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CA-26: Linda Parks Avoids Question Who She Supports for President
Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks and No Party Preference Candidate for Congress
Yes, she did it again – Linda Parks avoided a political question, just as had earlier.Parks, who represents the Conejo Valley on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, switched her registration from Republican to “no party preference” for this race. She also has been a registered Democrat. In the congressional race, she’s resisted attempts to pin down her partisan loyalties.
At an earlier debate, she would not say which party’s candidate she would support for Speaker of the House of Representatives. On Thursday, Herdt asked her how she planned to vote for president of the United States, and she refused to answer that, too.
“The reason I’m running is because I’m rejecting the model that pits us against them,” Parks said. “I am truly an independent, and I reject trying to label me.”
As, I said before, this congressional race IS a PARTISAN one and this will not play well with voters.
How does one expect a politician NOT to have an opinion as to who to vote for President?
Her reticence to choose smacks of political opportunism, no?
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CA-26: Democrat Assemblywoman Julia Brownley Picks Up Environmental Group’s Endorsement
California Democrat Assemblywoman Julia Brownley and CA-26 Congressional Candidate
This is an important endorsement for Brownley as it greatly undercuts the reason for Ventura County Supervisor Linda Park’s environmental base of support.The California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV)—the non-partisan political arm of the environmental movement in California—today announced its endorsement of Julia Brownley for Congress in California’s 26th district, which encompasses most of Ventura County. CLCV cited Brownley’s strong environmental record and her courage to stand up to special interests as reasons for the endorsement. Based on her track record, Brownley received an impressive 99% lifetime score on CLCV’s Environmental Scorecard for her votes on priority environmental legislation while serving in the Assembly.
“CLCV is proud to endorse Julia Brownley to become California’s Congressional Representative for the new 26th district,” said CLCV Political Director, David Allgood. “Julia Brownley has a long track record of leadership on protecting the environment and the public’s health and will be a powerful advocate for the residents of Ventura County in Congress.”
“I’m honored to have the endorsement of the California League of Conservation Voters,” said Brownley. “As a member of Congress, I will continue to stand up to the special interests that threaten the quality of our air, water and coastline, and fight for a stronger national energy policy focused on conservation, alternative energy development, and green jobs.”
In Ventura and Oxnard, where Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks is not as well known, Brownley will plaster Democratic and Independent voter’s mailboxes with this endorsement.
How will Parks respond, if she does not have the campaign cash from any organized party or PAC?
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CA-26: Handicapping Linda Parks and Tony Strickland
Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks (NP) and California State Senator Tony Strickland (R)
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…..
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CA-26: Linda Parks Avoids Question Who She Will Support for House Speaker
Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks and Congressional candidate
It is not really a question you can dodge when running for Congress as a no party preference candidate, but Linda Parks did – multiple times.This audience, it seems, really wanted Linda Parks to answer the question: Who would she vote for to be speaker of the House?
Parks, who is running as an independent in the 26th Congressional District U.S. House race, would have none of it.
She repeated what she’s been saying since dropping her GOP affiliation last month and re-registered as having no party preference: She rejects the emphasis on party domination; partisanship is keeping the country from dealing with real issues; it’s what’s wrong with the country.
David Maron, a League of Women Voters of Ventura County member who moderated a forum Friday afternoon for candidates for the House seat, tried again. Seven question cards had been submitted by audience members with some variation of the question, he told her.
“I am going without the baggage of a party label,” Parks said, and began to elaborate again.
Maron interrupted her midsentence, saying he needed to move on.
“I just wanted to give you one more chance,” he said.
Ventura County voters are not going to be satisfied with avoiding the question. It is simply answered either Republican Speaker John Boehner or former Speaker Democrat Nancy Pelosi or abstention.
But, you see, Supervisor Parks wants to appeal to voters of both parties and independents.
You cannot have your cake and eat it too, Linda.
Boehner or Pelosi?
I have embedded video of the League of Women Voters’ forum below.
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CA-26 Poll Watch: Linda Parks Beating Democrats in June Primary AND Tony Strickland in November
Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks (NP) and California State Senator Tony Strickland (R)
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.
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CA-26: Final Candidates Set for Congressional Race – 4 Democrats, 1 Republican and 1 No Party Preference
California Congressional District 26 Map from Around the Capitol
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.
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CA-26: Julia Brownley Supported by Pro-Abortion EMILY’s List
California Democrat Assemblywoman Julia Brownley
Julia Brownley is now on the LIST.Four more female House candidates have grabbed the attention of EMILY’s List, a Democratic political action committee (PAC) that supports women who favor abortion rights.
Democrats Jessica Ehrlich in Florida, Shelley Adler in New Jersey, Julia Brownley in California and Joyce Healy-Abrams in Ohio have been put “On the List,” one stop short of a full endorsement. The designation will give the four candidates access to the PAC’s fundraising base while they work to meet additional benchmarks.
“From Republican efforts to put your boss in charge of your healthcare coverage to Rush Limbaugh’s vile attacks on women who dare to speak up for themselves, the GOP is waging an all-out war on women,” EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock said in a statement. “Now more than ever, we need strong leaders like Shelley, Julia, Jessica and Joyce in Congress in order to make Washington work for women and families.”
This will provide significant resources for Brownley in this race who is running against four other Democrats, one independent, Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks and a Republican, California State Senator Tony Strickland.
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Alan Werbalowsky, CA-26, David Cruz Thayne, David Pollock, Jess Herrera, Julia Brownley, Linda Parks, Tony Strickland
CA-26: Democrat David Pollock Will NOT Run for Congress
The Bad New Bears Star and Moorpark City Councilman has decided not to file tomorrow for a Congressional race.“I am writing to let you know that I have suspended my campaign for Congress,” Pollock said in prepared statement emailed to supporters. “This was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make, and I want to assure you that my campaign team and consultants considered every possible path forward.
“Because of the way the candidate field formed, there was a strong possibility of an unfavorable outcome not only for me but the other Democrats in the race. From the beginning, this race was not about me; it was about bringing real change to our representation in Ventura County and a voice of reason to Congress.”
Obviously, Democratic Party leaders have prevailed on Pollock to get out of the race. This is to give Democratic California Assemblywoman Julia Brownley a chance at winning a top two spot in the June primary election against two better known Ventura County politicians, Tony Strickland and Linda Parks.
I doubt the other two remaining Democrats will withdraw since they have already stated they are in for good.
But, you never know what the Democratic Party will offer to clear a field.
Tomorrow night at 5 PM, the filing deadline we will be able to examine the field of candidates.
So far, this is what we have:
- Republican California State Senator Tony Strickland
- Independent/No Party Preference Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks
- Democrat California Assemblywoman Julia Brownley
- Democrat Oxnard Harbor Commissioner Jess Herrera
- Democrat Westlake Village businessman David Cruz Thayne
- Libertarian/Republican Akiva Werbalowsky
Stay tuned….
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CA-26: Democrats Attacking Democrats Over Julia Brownley Carpetbagging Issue
Well, I said it would be an issue and some of the Democrats in this congressional race cannot help themselves from piling on Democratic California Assemblywoman Julia Brownley.Democrats David Pollock, David Cruz Thayne, Jess Herrera and Assemblywoman Julia Brownley are all vying for the democratic vote after county supervisor and front-runner Steve Bennett backed out of the race on the verge of receiving an endorsement at the party’s state convention on Feb. 11.
Here is the action:
“This is about stating the facts,” said Alex Thompson, campaign manager for Thayne. “The matter is, Brownley has said she represents 50,000 people in Ventura County. The matter is, she represents them but doesn’t have an office here. She is trying to hide the fact she is from Santa Monica.” Thompson said there is “absolutely not a chance” for Thayne to pull out of the race.
Candidate and Oxnard Harbor District Commissioner Herrera said the district needs somebody who was born and raised in the area to rightly understand its constituents. The fact that Brownley recently moved here from Santa Monica doesn’t sit well with Herrera.
“When have you seen someone from Oxnard or Camarillo represent L.A. County or Santa Barbara?” asked Herrera, who said he also has no intention of backing out of the race.
In the meantime, Republican State Senator Tony Strickland and independent Ventura county Supervisor Linda Parks will sit back and let the numerous Democrats divide up the vote and portray the one Democrat who could possible beat them as a carpetbagger.
The filing deadline is tomorrow at 5 PM.
Wonder if any of these candidates will be persuaded by the Democratic Party to withdraw.
We will see.