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Some candidates snub events, sponsors say
One-sided forums are the result when opponents turn down requests
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The candidates in the hottest political campaign Ventura County has seen in years appeared together for the first time over the weekend in Thousand Oaks and have scheduled two more joint appearances at forums in early October, but sponsors of other events complain they have been snubbed by one candidate or the other.
Katie Teague, a leader of a group called the California Association of Political Centrists, said Tony Strickland, Republican candidate for the 19th Senate District seat, has declined to appear at an event scheduled for this evening at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.
Teague said her group was told Strickland "did not want to participate," but the event will go forward with time given to Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson.
The forum will also feature candidates for the Conejo Valley Unified School District and a pro-con presentation of Proposition 11, the redistricting initiative on the November ballot.
She said the group decided to allow Jackson to speak alone because "one of our missions is to educate the public, and I don't think we should allow one candidate to hijack the public debate."
Strickland consultant Joe Justin said no Republican nominee for any partisan office in the county will participate in either of the association-sponsored candidates' forums because Republicans worry about "the organization's lack of objectivity."
The Political Centrists group was formed in 2006 by Teague and Leslie Cornejo, the former president of the county Republican Party. Teague had also been an alternate member of the county GOP committee.
When they split from the Republican leadership they formed the new organization that also includes Democrats and independents. Its purpose, Teague said, is to represent the interests of "the broad middle" of the electorate.
Today's lone-candidate forum follows a similar event — with the candidates' roles reversed — that took place Sept. 11 in Buellton.
There, Strickland appeared by himself at an event the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association had hoped would feature both candidates.
Executive Director Joe Armendariz said his group offered to reschedule the Sept. 11 event to accommodate Jackson but went ahead with the Strickland-only presentation after being told Jackson could not accommodate any September dates.
He said he understands the candidates have busy schedules, but felt that Jackson should have been able to find at least one open date in September. "I don't think even John McCain and Barack Obama have that problem," he said.
Sandra Sanchez, Jackson's campaign manager, said the Santa Barbara group did not follow up by proposing any specific alternate dates.
The candidates appeared together for the first time Sunday morning at the regular "bagel brunch" held by the men's group at Temple Adat Elohim in Thousand Oaks.
Group President John Saulino said the event, moderated by Rabbi Ted Riter, was attended by about 125 people. He described the two-hour forum as cordial and informational.
Strickland and Jackson have agreed to joint appearances on Oct. 3 at an event sponsored by the Ventura Chamber of Commerce and an Oct. 10 forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Ventura County.
Zoe Taylor, president and CEO of the Ventura Chamber, said a location has not yet been selected for the evening forum, which will feature only the Senate candidates and be moderated by Star Editor and Vice President Joe Howry.
She said the event will be "more of a town hall than a forum" and will feature questions from the public, although the process for screening and selecting those questions has not yet been developed.
The chamber event will be taped by community access television and will be made available for showing to cable TV franchises throughout the county.
Posted by jake425 on September 24, 2008 at 7:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Far-right Strickland has been telling voters he is "Independent," which is a joke but avoiding the forum put on by Centrists underscores how much of a joke that is.
Posted by ishy on September 24, 2008 at 8:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Give it a rest. The so called "centrist" group is a couple of disgruntled republicans (removed from power for their incompetence) who have done nothing except throw bombs at the local republican party for 2 years now.
The democratic and "indidpendent" members listed as part of the organization are only involved to egg them on. There is nothing "non-partisan" about these guys.
Why would tony waste his time at a one-sided forum with a one-sided group that has gone out of their way to attack him.
Posted by KatieTeague on September 24, 2008 at 11:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I sent out an e-mail early this morning to all CAPC membership, interested parties, etc.
I invite everyone to look at our website www.PoliticalCentrists.com.
From: Katie Teague [KatieTeague@verizon.net">mailto:KatieTeague@verizon.net]
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 8:10 AM
Cc: LesCornejo@aol.com
Subject: CAPC Forums and Star Article today
CAPC will have two forums – one tonight at CLU – TO and one tomorrow night at CLU – Oxnard. Joe Howry with the Ventura County Star is doing the questions and professors from the Political Science Department are doing the moderating. If you don’t see the ad today, call for details. 805-218-0058
24th
The only partisan candidates invited and not coming are Tony and Audra Strickland. Hannah-Beth Jackson will be there as well as Ferial Masry. Seven of the eight Conejo Valley School Trustee candidates will be there. We will also have a pro/con on Prop 11 – Redistricting.
25th
Debate between the two BOS candidates – John Flynn and John Zaragoza. Chris Valenzano (incumbent) for Ventura County Board of Education was invited but no response. Dan Miller (candidate for VCBOE) has a scheduling conflict. Drs. Mark Lisagor and Ramon Flores will be there. Both are the other candidates for the VCBOE. We will have a pro/con on the Unification issue and the Prop 11 – Redistricting issue.
Katie Teague
CAPC
(Interesting the Peter Foy refused to debate Jim Dantona in the last League of Women Voters forum. He cited them as not being neutral enough)
Posted by jake425 on September 24, 2008 at 11:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Ishy, if the Star and CLU are doing the questions and moderating, then how is this one-sided?
Posted by madmax on September 24, 2008 at 11:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
ishy's response: MAINSTREAM LIBERAL MEDIA BLAH BLAH BLAH
Posted by jake425 on September 24, 2008 at 12:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
So what would you consider a fair forum? You have ruled out Centrist groups, the local newspaper and college professors. Do you think the very conservative taxpayers' group would be more fair? The Chamber? It would appear a conservative supervisor candidate has also said the League of Women Voters is biased, too.
Who is the arbiter of biased?
Posted by ishy on September 25, 2008 at 2:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Well, lets see. Both have appeared at the Temple in T.O. and have agreed to appear at the Ventura Chamber forum as well as the League of Women Voters forum. So obviously there is an issue with this specific group.
The big difference is that these organizations, whether they have a slight leaning one way or the other or not at all, haven't spent the past 2 years bashing Tony Strickland and the local republican party. You can't blame him for not showing up to their slumber party.
Cornejo and Teague are bitter and a joke and their only purpose is to spew vitriol against the like of the Stricklands.
Their event last night was a total joke. Of the few dozen people that were there, ONLY A HALF DOZEN OR FEWER WERE NOT CONNECTED TO ONE OF THE CANDIDATES FEATURED.
They are grasping desperately to gain relevancy, thats why they have to have the Star, the University and whatever other organization co-sponsor because they'd be nothing without them.
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