Dog Knight of the Soul

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HECKLE V. JECKLE: It ain’t necessarily for all the marbles; it just feels like it. In the weeks and months to come, your television, radio, computer, and mailbox will become the arenas of choice for Democrat Party firebrand Hannah-Beth Jackson to go mano-a-mano against one-time Republican Party enforcer—and former assemblymember—Tony Strickland in their quest to represent us in the California Senate. It will be Godzilla versus King Kong, and the Earth will tremble. That’s due partly to the combustible personalities of the individuals involved. But for the political parties, it’s a clear case of do-or-die, especially for the Republicans. Currently, the Democrats are just two seats shy of controlling a two-thirds majority in the State Senate. Given that a two-thirds majority is required to pass any budget or spending measure, that means the Senate Democrats are now within lunging distance of absolute power, at least when it comes to the political purse strings.

Angry Poodle

It used to be that the 19th Senate District, which slithers like an anorexic tape worm up along the coast from the Magic Mountains of Santa Clarita to the shimmering tulip fields and howling wind tunnels of the Lompoc Valley, was about as safe a Republican seat as existed. No token gestures toward moderation were required, and certainly none were given by the seat’s outgoing occupant, the effervescently reactionary Tom McClintock. A career politician who made a living bashing career politicians, term limits have chased McClintock, cheerful carpetbagger that he is, out of Sacramento to Northern California where he is now running for Congress. I, for one, will miss him. McClintock was probably the single most accessible politician I ever covered, and he could be counted on quoting Winston Churchill within the first 15 seconds of any interview. But as someone who believes government agencies should be straight-jacketed and lobotomized, McClintock was never one for constituent service. Maybe this turned off his district to the virtues of Republicanism. Whatever the case, the voter registration of the 19th District has changed enough to give even a stem-winding, yellow dog Democrat like Jackson more than a fighting chance.

Before leaving, McClintock anointed Strickland as his hand-picked successor. If Jackson hasn’t sent Tom a handwritten thank-you note on perfumed stationary, then she’s either an idiot or an ingrate.

Strickland got his start in politics working as a McClintock staffer. He ran for the Assembly in 1998, where he was every bit as conservative as McClintock, though not nearly as nimble. In assessing Strickland’s strengths, one Sacramento lobbyist stated, “He has a nice head of hair.” Then, he added, “Strickland plays a mean shortstop for the Republican Party softball team and can turn a sweet double play.” Like Jackson, Strickland was termed out of office in 2004, but not before bequeathing his Assembly seat unto his wife, Audra. But Audra, it turns out, is not much of a softball player. According to the same unnamed lobbyist, if all 80 assemblymembers in Sacramento were ranked, Strickland would come in 81st.

Where Tony and Audra’s political careers are concerned, it’s hard to know where one ends and the other begins. Audra, for example, hired a hard-charging conservative name Joe Angeles as her chief of staff, but Angeles has also shown up, much like the proverbial skunk in a punch bowl, at events representing Tony. The most embarrassing of these occurred this June in front of the Westlake Hotel where a large group of Jackson supporters were protesting a $50,000 check the Ventura County Republican Central Committee had taken from the tobacco industry on behalf of Tony Strickland’s campaign. As the protesters approached the hotel, witnesses—an admittedly biased bunch—claimed Angeles stepped forward with his arms out to prevent their forward progress and began shouting things like, “You are atheist” and “You are not Americans, you are cowards.” If they did not stop, he threatened, “If you step foot on this curb, you will go down.” You have to give Angeles credit; he meant what he said. Not a man to make idle threats, Angeles body checked at least three of the protesters, knocking one older man—a Vietnam War vet and a minister—to the ground and a recent high school graduate into some decorative shrubbery.

Angeles was also involved in Tony Strickland’s feeble efforts to green wash his outspokenly anti-environmental voting record while in the Assembly. In his ballot statement, Strickland identifies himself as an “Alternative Energy Executive,” presumably in hopes of appealing to the environmentally minded voters of Santa Barbara who presumably don’t know better. Jackson stretched a bit too, calling herself an “educator,” though she’s best known professionally as a former divorce attorney. But Jackson actually taught at UCSB after leaving the Assembly in 2004, and was paid real money for her efforts. By contrast, Strickland has yet to receive a single dime from the company GreenWave Energy Solutions, which was formed just earlier this year allegedly to pursue wave energy projects off the coast. Strickland has yet to pony up the $5,000 investment capital that was required of all the other company executives, most of whom are friends or political cronies. Angeles has been listed as a GreenWave employee, though a volunteer employee at that. Equally phony is the new group Democrats 4 Strickland, which has emerged out of nowhere with no member names and no contact numbers. Although the Strickland campaign disavows any connection, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Angeles involved there, too. (Jackson enjoys the support of a similar group—Moderate Republicans for Jackson—but it has named members you can actually talk to.)

If Strickland loses to Jackson, that means the Republicans will be just one vote away from absolute irrelevance in the California Senate. (The other Republican is Santa Maria’s Abel Maldonado, who defected from his party last year to support the governor’s budget. For this, the Democrats rewarded Maldonado by running no one against him.) Little wonder the Republican Party has poured nearly $700,000 into his campaign so far. The Democrats have not been nearly so generous with Jackson. But maybe they don’t have to be. Maybe they’re banking on Strickland shooting himself in the foot so many times, he’ll just tip over. It’s not a bad bet.

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