Jim Dantona on the Issues: Part 1—The Campaign

This article is the first in a series about Jim Dantona’s views on the issues that are important to him and to residents of California’s State Senate District 19, which he seeks to represent. The district is currently represented by Tom McClintock, who will step down at the expiration of his term. Former state assemblyman Tony Strickland looks likely to win the Republican nomination; Dantona and former state assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson will contest the Democratic nomination.

When Jim Dantona announced he would enter the campaign for the California State Senate’s District 19 seat in August, the race was still wide open. Only former Republican assemblyman Tony Strickland was known to be running for the seat.

But then, after weeks of swirling rumors, former assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson announced on October 17 that she would enter the race.

After years of declining Republican voter registration in Ventura County, the race is competitive and according to Timm Herdt of the Ventura County Star, will be closely watched by both parties.

“It will likely be one of the most contested and expensive Senate races in the state, as it is one of only a few that is potentially competitive,” Herdt wrote on August 28.

Now this is getting exciting.

“Dantona’s candidacy has energized east county Democrats who have endured years of famine,” wrote Herdt in an October 24 opinion piece, “A Democratic Civil War?”

The problem for Dantona is that Jackson enjoys the support of many people in Santa Barbara and the west end of the county.

This could mean an east-west battle over the Democratic nomination.

Make no mistake, District 19 is an important part of a very important state. It includes the Ventura County cities of Ventura, Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Moorpark, Ojai, and Simi Valley among others. In Santa Barbara County, it includes the cities of Santa Barbara, Goleta, Montecito, and Lompoc, among others.

Even after the Democratic nominee is chosen, there will be a tough battle against Tony Strickland, who has already raised a lot of money.

So why is Jim Dantona running?

“This race means a great deal to me,” he said at a fundraiser on October 18. “We are motivated.”

“We can finally break the hold of the McClintock-Strickland machine that they’ve had for so many years.”

Dantona’s strategy has been to call himself a centrist, knowing that the district is narrowly split between Democrats and Republicans, with a large cadre of people declining to state a party affiliation.

“You know, it’s not a matter of just some label on you—you’re liberal, you’re conservative, you’re a Democrat, you’re a Republican—it doesn’t really matter: it’s about all of us living a better life,” said Dantona.

During the speech at his fundraiser, Dantona mentioned jobs, health care, and education as his primary concerns. These are the same issues he discussed in a September 13 article in the VC Reporter.

He added women’s reproductive rights to the list during an interview with me the night of his fundraiser.

“I care about the ability of women to be able to choose what they want, that they’re working on the same level,” he said.

The issues of jobs and health care are interrelated for Dantona.

“I am not against globalization,” he said. “What I’m against is when major corporations end up outsourcing jobs, Americans, Californians in particular, lose their jobs, they can’t afford any health care, they can’t afford anything else in terms of putting food on the table.”

Dantona objects to corporations receiving “tax benefits,” as he calls them, despite outsourcing jobs overseas.

Education is another key issue for Dantona, who believes that No Child Left Behind “doesn’t solve one problem in this state.” And, he says, “we need to get rid of it now.”

Getting back to the campaign itself, Dantona was gracious about his Democratic opponent—but makes it clear that he’s out to win: “I have no problem with Hannah-Beth, she’s a wonderful person. This district isn’t drawn for her. She’s way too far to the left and I’m a centrist and I’m the guy who can bring it all together. I have the leadership’s support on this thing and with that, that’s going to be the thing that wins the race, and that’s what I believe is going to happen.”

Jim Dantona Knocks It Out of the Park

Sure, you knew that Jim Dantona is running for California’s District 19 Senate seat. You might know that he was once a professional baseball player. But did you know that he can fire up a crowd and raise a big pile of money and at the same time?

 

 

Yep. And then some.

 

 

 

At a fundraiser Thursday night in Simi Valley, former Maryland Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend gave a moving tribute to Dantona, whom she has known for years.

 

 

The two are such close friends that Dantona even helped her find a used car for her daughter years ago. And the car still works, she said.

 

Dantona’s son, he said, is named after Robert Kennedy, Townsend’s father.

 

 

Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas spoke highly of Dantona.

 

“I have had the pleasure of meeting Jim Dantona is somewhat of an awkward way,” he said. “There was a heavyweight-middleweight fight in the San Fernando Valley in 1996 and Jim and I ran for the state assembly.”

 

“The problem was we were running for the same seat….I got to know Jim during that race and believe it or not, on election night, we realized that we were friends. I was blessed to be the elected assemblyman that night and Jim called me and he said, ‘Tony, if there’s anything you need, you let me know.’”

 

“I’ve run in various races and I’ve received those phone calls many many times, but this is the only person who actually meant it and has lived it. That’s the character and integrity of Jim Dantona.”

 

Dantona, it seems, is both a loyal friend and a fighter.

 

 

 

And he’s out to win.

 

Dantona faces two hurdles in his bid to win a seat on the California Senate: Hannah-Beth Jackson and Tony Strickland.

 

Jackson announced her candidacy for office Wednesday in Santa Barbara. Tony Strickland is the lone Republican candidate for the office, and is said to have raised about $400,000.

 

Tom McClintock, the current conservative Republican officeholder, might even get to run for the seat again if an ill-conceived ballot measure passes in February.

 

But despite these obstacles, Dantona is squared up to the plate and ready to swing. And now he has the strength of a little money in his campaign coffers.

 

“The major difference between myself and Tony [Strickland], McClintock, and any of the Republicans is that I can work with both sides now,” said Dantona. “I can work with the pro tem and the leadership of the party, and that’s what we need.”

 

“You elect Strickland or anybody else including McClintock and they could never work with the leadership.”

 

“This district was unrepresented for 8 years under McClintock. It will be unrepresented if another Republican takes over.”

 

Go get ‘em Jim. We need you out there hitting for us.

 

 

 

The Ups and Downs of Barack Obama

Senator Barack Obama fired up a crowd of an estimated 6,000 people in Santa Barbara today.

 

This evening, Santa Barbara television station KSBY ran an article and posted this video about the presidential candidate’s visit. Pitifully, the Santa Barbara News-Press, pariah of South Coast newspapers, had nothing on its front page about the visit tonight. Neither did the Ventura County Star.

 

The following quotes are from the KSBY article and video:

 

“I really think he has the power to change the country through inspiring millions of people like myself,” said supporter George Corbin.

 

Another supporter, James Johnson, said, “I think it’s really about changing the system, and the fact that he really understands that inspires me a lot.”

 

Obama’s comments seemed to strengthen these views: “If you’re looking for a president of the United States of America, then don’t just bet on this campaign, believe in yourself.”

 

I trust we’ll get better reporting of the event tomorrow morning.

 

Tonight, Obama attends a fundraiser at Oprah Winfrey’s home in nearby Montecito.

 

Today, the Los Angeles Times ran the puzzlingly poorly edited article, “Obama: A Fresh Face or an Old-school Tactician?” It does not paint a flattering portrait of Obama in the rough-and-tumble Chicago political scene.

 

He was ambitious, says the article, citing a staffer, Cynthia K. Miller, as saying Obama had told her he planned to be president. This was in 1995.

 

Among other things, the article implies that Obama had directed state money to a nonprofit run by Yesse Yehudah as a payment-in-kind for a series of donations to his failed campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives.

 

The article describes how Obama helped black-owned investment firms get money from the state pensions funds and then received large campaign donations from them, particularly from Ariel Capital.

 

Another odd incident occurred when Obama bought a $1.65 million house in Chicago. The seller of the house also wanted to sell a small parcel of land along with the house. Antoin Rezko is an early financial supporter of Obama who was recently under federal indictment. His wife bought the land and later sold it back to Obama, who has now transferred it to his lawyer. Obama admitted his involvement in this affair was“boneheaded.”

 

So, our hero does not have completely clean hands. This is disheartening. But does Hillary? Does John Edwards? Does any politician? Should we plug our noses and hope for the best?

 

Certainly, Obama, Clinton, and Edwards would all be preferable to any Republican currently on offer. At least our candidates would not trample on the Constitution as the present president has done. And luckily, the GOP probably does not have the courage to choose Rudolph Giuliani as its candidate, he’s too liberal on social issues, after all, and secretly tolerates gays. Therefore the Republicans’ candidate will lose the election handily.

But I am tired of the same old politician, the type that does not understand that political office is a sacred public trust, that no portion of this can be bought and sold. I had hoped Obama was not one of these. Is all of this blown out of proportion? I certainly hope so.