Home › Elections › Local election news
Jorgensen headed to surprise victory; Gallegly wins
Download this story as a podcast!
RELATED STORIES
STORY TOOLS
More from Local election news
Apparently powered by the appeal of the word "educator," a teacher and former nurse from Solvang appeared headed to an unexpected win in the three-way race for the Democratic nomination in the 24th Congressional District.
Marta Jorgensen, reached by phone Tuesday evening and informed of the early returns, was incredulous. "You're kidding! That's a pretty amazing thing."
For three weeks during the campaign, Jorgensen had suspended campaigning and announced she was supporting Jill Martinez, a developer of affordable housing and the Democratic nominee from two years ago.
But, saying she thought Martinez and Oak Park insurance agent Mary Pallant were not paying enough attention to Santa Barbara County voters, Jorgensen jumped back in.
"I was certain I had shot myself in the foot on that," she said. "I thought maybe I'd get 8 or 10 percent."
With 83 percent of the returns counted, Jorgensen was leading, with 47 percent of the vote, over Martinez, with 32 percent, and Pallant, with 21 percent.
The winner will face incumbent Rep. Elton Gallegly, who easily prevailed in the Republican primary over Westlake Village attorney Michael Tenenbaum. Gallegly led, 77 percent to 23 percent.
The key to Jorgensen's apparent victory was likely her ballot designation: "Educator."
In a race in which none of the candidates spent much money to introduce themselves to voters, many Democrats apparently preferred that designation to those listed on the ballot below Martinez ("Businesswoman/Housing Developer") and Pallant ("Insurance Agent").
Jorgensen teaches computer classes in her home, and last year taught technology and journalism to third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at a private school in the Santa Ynez Valley.
Gallegly, 64, will be favored to win his 12th term in a district in which Republicans hold a 7.5 percentage-point voter-registration edge. That advantage has diminished slightly from a 10-point edge two years ago, when Gallegly defeated Martinez, 62 percent to 38 percent.
Gallegly, speaking by phone from the same Simi Valley restaurant where he celebrated his first congressional primary victory 22 years ago, said the night provided "a little more nostalgia in some ways."
He vowed to take nothing for granted. "No one's ever been able to say that Gallegly sits on his laurels," he said.
Jorgensen said she achieved her victory "with no support from the party insiders," but that she is committed to trying to defeat Gallegly.
"I have all the same progressive ideas as those other two women," she said.
Because she was the most novice of the contenders, Jorgensen's victory could dampen Democratic hopes that larger political trends would make the district competitive in the fall.
Posted by kind1 on June 4, 2008 at 7:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)
From what I understand, there are a still lot of mail in ballots to be counted. Could the Star, please look into how many ballots remain to be counted? I understand it could take up to 28 days before those ballots are verified and then counted. I know of one polling place that had just a few on site voters (less than a dozen) but more than 35 mail in ballots were dropped off. I also heard that those ballots they might not be actually counted? Is it true?
Posted by mephistomycat on June 4, 2008 at 11:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
When will the voters send Gallegly into retirement?
I wonder about the Hispanic vote when such an immigrant basher is again on the ballot.
Posted by kpy85 on June 4, 2008 at 11:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm shocked. I thought it would be a close race between Pallant and Martinez. I liked Pallant a lot, I thought she had a real chance of beating Gallegly in the fall.
Posted by rjlebeck on June 4, 2008 at 5:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
kpy85,
I really thought Pallant had a shot at Gallegly as well. Democracy is rapidly becoming a failed experiment because the voting public cannot or will not educate themselves about who the candidates are and what they stand for. Jorgensen is a scrappy little firebrand but is way over her head in challenging this incumbent. She hasn't the savvy or the sophistication needed to operate a campaign or function in Washington. She had no heavyweight endorsements, no money, no advertisements or mailers, no cogent or cognitive message, no voter outreach or phone banking, no staff or committed volunteers. She won because people in this district are basically ignorant and shallow people who are too busy to care. The majority of Dumbacrats based their vote by analyzing the candidates surnames and job titles. For their (non)diligence they will be rewarded with sending back to Washington a cowardly and manipulative party hack who will continue to allow our soldiers to die in Iraq without questioning the lies that put them there, continue to block legislation that would free us from our addiction to oil, and continue to thwart initiatives seeking to move the country toward better healthcare and education.
Dumbocrats should hang their collective heads in shame because right now the Republicans are laughing, not just behind your back, but in your face.
Posted by Tom_Johnston on June 4, 2008 at 5:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hmm....an interesting outcome.
There is no getting around that Gallegly is tough to beat, especially given some of the nature of the East portion of Ventura County.
Maybe the Santa Barbarians are tired of some old crank from Simi who, while he likes animals, sure does not like the people who pick his fruit and vegetables....
A turn-out of 23-24% could accentuate that...I wonder what the breakdown is area by voting area..could be interesting.
Who knows...if Jorgenson can motivate folks West of the Conejo Grade, that plus SB...she might just send ol' Elton back home.
For what it's worth, while I dislike Gallegly's politics, I give him high marks for the individual service to citizens in his district, I know from personal experience that this is true.
Posted by kpy85 on June 5, 2008 at 12:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
One of the huge problems is the gerrymadering of the districts. Our district, the 24th district, includes the majority of the land area in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties....but the huge BUT is that it doesn't include the cities of Oxnard, Ventura, Port Hueneme, Santa Barbara, or Goleta! Those are all in Lois Capps heavily Democratic district. By taking away a lot of the hispanic vote, our district is doomed to be Republican for quite a while unfortunately.
And I too wish there was a way to see city by city the breakdown of the vote. Here in Thousand Oaks I think it's about 55-45 in favor of Republicans....but 15 years ago it was probably 65-35 so at least were moving in the right direction. Simi Valley I'm sure is still about 60 percent Republican. Ojai is probably 55-60 percent Democrat, but I think that's the only city in the district without a large hispanic community that has a majority of Democrats.
Article discussions on this site are to support community debates of issues related to our stories and editorials.
Discussions should not stray from the subject of the story or editorial.
We do not allow the following:
- Posts that degrade others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or disability.
- Disparaging remarks, abusive language or obscene comments.
- Threats, whether obvious or veiled.
We reserve the right to delete threads and/or ban users for these or other reasons we deem necessary.
Opinions are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.
There are 6 comments to this article.
Comments are found beneath the Yahoo! ad below.