Cleaning up the campaign

Big oil, the environment, the state of education and fixing a bleeding economy are just some of the issues in Susan Jordan’s and Das Williams’ campaigns for the 35th Assembly District.

Yet no sooner than one of the first official debates concluded last month for nominations in the June primaries, their biggest bone of contention seemed to have become less about the aforementioned issues and more about avoiding some heavy mudslinging. Now, local Democratic groups are stepping in to referee two of their own party members to prevent their undermining the election in favor of GOP hopefuls.
After some major finger pointing, accusatory remarks and general badmouthing, the Santa Barbara Democratic Party has offered the ultimate election season peace offering: the clean campaign pledge.

Jordan, a leading environmental lobbyist and wife of soon-to-be-termed-out 35th District incumbent Pedro Nava, and Williams, a Santa Barbara City Council member, have confirmed that they signed the committee’s pledge. Ventura Democrats say they’re also drafting their own pledge, imploring Jordan and Williams to sign with a promise to avoid any negative speak or personal jabs in their campaigns.
The pledges, normally optional in a race of this caliber, were rushed following the release of a letter authored by a high-ranking state Democrat that nearly drove a wedge between Jordan and Williams, both respected for their drive toward liberal and human rights causes.

The letter, by California Democratic Party Vice Chair Alexandra Gallardo-Rooker, endorsed Williams, stating that Jordan had long, deep affiliations with Republican-backed corporations. Jordan denied this and alleged that Williams’ campaign manager was behind the letter’s origins. While Williams denies this, Jordan later cried foul on her opponent when he issued his own clean campaign pledge the day following the letter's release. She contends that it was Williams’ way of taking the low and high roads at the same time.
Jordan, in no uncertain terms, refused to sign Williams’ independent clean campaign pledge.

“My signing of his pledge does not allow a full, robust discussion of our records or differences in policies,” Jordan said last week. “Yes, we’re both Democrats, but I think there are differences between us. As this campaign goes on, people are going to want to know what those differences are.”

Most evident is the polarization between Jordan and Williams on oil drilling. They disagree over a proposal by Texas-based Plains Exploration and Production, or PXP, to partner with the Environmental Defense Center, allowing for more drilling from offshore PXP rigs with the intent of curbing drilling on other parts of the Ventura/Santa Barbara coastline.

Known as the Tranquillon Ridge Project, it calls for PXP drilling to sunset in 14 years, after which time the state hopes to gain as much as $4 billion in oil tax revenue and use them to fund California parks.
Jordan maintains a firm zero-drilling stance and believes PXP can renege on its promise at any time. Williams says he supports the PXP project because it calls for a significant, smarter reduction in oil drilling over time.

“My position is no different than (Santa Barbara environmental group) Get Oil Out,” he says.
Williams, though, asserts that before the release of Rooker’s letter, and prior to the signing of clean campaign pledges, Jordan was lambasting him for being pro-oil, linking it to Williams’ association with former 35th District Assembly member Hannah-Beth Jackson. Jackson, whom Williams has described as his “mentor,” has ties with the Environmental Defense Center.

“ ‘Hi, I’m Susan Jordan, my opponent supports oil,’ ” says Williams. “I just think that’s a negative tone. It’s not truthful, and that’s not the way we should be conducting a campaign.”
He continued, “When I disagree with my allies, I don’t throw them under the bus and vilify them … as having changed sides.”

Yet Jordan says that’s exactly what’s happened with Rooker’s letter. Rooker, in the missive, decries Jordan’s “attempts to deceive voters about her qualifications for office while disparaging her opponent.”
In her letter, Rooker, who did not respond to numerous phone calls, states further that Jordan was a senior partner with Dresner, Sykes, Jordan and Townsend, a “New York-based Republican political firm.”
“I think it was a deliberate misrepresentation of my work,” Jordan says, who worked for the firm from 1980 to 1994. “When I joined the firm, the clients on the political platform were Bill Clinton and Senator Pat Moynihan. You can’t get much more Democratic than that.”

Amidst the back-and-forth between the two, Santa Barbara Democrats came forward with their campaign pledge. In it, the pledge maintains that the infighting could dissuade people from turning up at the polls.
“Personal attack-oriented campaigns are a major factor in the growing cynicism, alienation, and non-participation among American voters,” it states. “They demean through use of innuendo and rumor our valued political process.    

Daraka Larimore-Hall, chairman of the Santa Barbara Democratic Party, went even further to say that more squabbling between Jordan and Williams could result in a Republican — in this case, Mike Stoker or Daniel Goldberg — getting elected.

“We’re trying to be vigilant and we’re very concerned the candidates will bash each other in a way that would hurt the party’s efforts,” he said. “The last thing in the world we want to see is a solid Democratic seat handed over to a conservative Republican because our candidates did his work for him.”
In addition to Santa Barbara, Ventura Democrats won’t be endorsing Jordan or Williams, not just because it’s the state party’s task, according to Central Committee Chair Brian Leshon, but because both candidates are too strong to choose between.

“It’s just become a very competitive race,” Leshon says. “Das is very entrenched in local grassroots campaigns, and Susan’s been involved in a little more statewide. They’re both just great candidates. It’s hard to describe which one would best represent the district.”

Following the race is Greg Freeland, a political science professor at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, who says that the tactics being seen in the primaries are not uncommon for the candidates and topics at hand.

“I don’t see it as too much of a negative thing,” he said. “I think it’s just two aggressive politicians campaigning really hard.”

Freeland added that it will take the efforts of both candidates to stay true to the clean campaign pledges.
“The way it would work is on the integrity of the politicians,” he says.

Both Democrats are running on different campaign platforms — Jordan’s defining cause with oil drilling and Williams on protecting public education from state cutbacks. The two are also at odds over the legalization and availability of medical marijuana. Jordan and Williams find themselves in accord over allowing gay marriage, raising some property taxes under Proposition 13, and other issues.

When the primaries are over in June, Leshon stated, the Ventura Central Committee will back whoever is nominated for the 35th District.

“When this is all over and one of these exceptional candidates wins the nomination, we want to get behind and support them,” he said. “Democrats need to work for the Democrats.”

www.jordan4assembly.net, www.daswilliams.org.