Why has the Ventura County Republican Party (VCRP) oddly injected itself into the nonpartisan race for county supervisor when the only declared candidates are both Republican?

Was it because one of them, Audra Strickland, controls the VCRP through family, friends and cronies?

Why did the VCRP last year endorse Jeff Gorell for Assembly to replace termed-out Strickland, almost a year before candidate papers can even be filed?

Was it to intimidate other potential Republican candidates so they don’t run?

The VCRP insiders have no shame and will do whatever they can to maintain power and control, even if it means destroying the character of others. When VCRP chair Mike Osborn was asked if he knew anything about the recent smear “poll” on Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks, also a Republican, he slickly said, “Maybe.”

It was later discovered that the VCRP, indeed, funded it. Funny how Audra Strickland denied knowledge of the poll, even though her own mother-inlaw is on the VCRP central committee. Well, maybe they just don’t talk.

Did you get the two “franking” mailers that Audra Strickland sent in December at the exact same time she announced her–later withdrawn–candidacy for county treasurer? She was obviously using state funds to advertise herself and also to pressure the Board of Supervisors not to adopt treasurer qualifications, which she doesn’t meet. Those wasteful mailers probably cost a couple of hundred thousand dollars and were paid for with your taxes. Is that being fiscally conservative?

Both Republican and Democratic parties at all levels get corrupted over time by powerhungry greedy politicians and cronies who abuse their positions of public trust.

I’m a fiscal and environmental conservative, a registered Republican, and would like to stay one. However, the VCRP makes me want to look elsewhere.

Remember what President Ronald Reagan once said when he switched parties? “I didn’t leave the party; they left me.”
John Fonti
Thousand Oaks