The Ventura Republican Party has a long history of divisive internal fighting between its component factions. These divisions have undermined the core missions of the VCRP – registering voters, recruiting, training, and deploying precinct captains, recruiting candidates, and raising money. The opportunity of uniting the two major factions usually only occurs every few years. One of those rare alignments, when the Ventura civil war could at long last end and allow the party organization to play a meaningful role in local politics, is upon us.
In 2000 Jackie Rodgers was elected Chairman of the Ventura County Republican Party. By any standard, and from any perspective, Rodgers proved incapable of understanding or implementing basic programs which are the heart of a county organization. However, she was very effective at alienating both Republican officials and her own committee members. In 2002, facing a nearly united committee, Rodgers resigned in advance of being sacked.
Suddenly the stars were in alignment. The factions were at least loosely aligned in wanting reform and an effective organization. Long-time activist Leslie Cornejo was elected Chairman. She was, however, hardly a consensus candidate. The vote, which she won by one vote, was an indication that real reform and organization building would probably be put on the backburner. With a one vote margin, those on the short side realize they are one lick away from the centre of the Tootsie Roll, and are usually game for more tries when the opportunity arises. In that situation the Chairman of a County Republican Party generally has to spend most of his time simply holding his position rather than building a machine.
In any case, all hell broke loose, and all opportunity was lost earlier this year when Cornejo and a small core of her allies made the controversial decision to stand with Mike Tenenbaum against incumbent Elton Gallegly AFTER Gallegly re-entered his Congressional race. Cornejo’s continued support of Tenenbaum was at least a violation of the spirit of the Ventura County Republican By-Laws, and went against the long Republican tradition of backing partisan incumbents for office unless they’ve committed some sort of venal sin. Tenenbaum was routed in the primary election.
The Tenenbaum-ites, as noted by Steve Frank, once more moved the stars into alignment. The two major factions were united in the agreement that Cornejo and her fellow Tenenbaum-ites had to go. And it was so. On Monday, the Chair of the Ventura County Republican Party was vacated. Shortly thereafter, Tenenbaum-ite James Prosser was replaced as First District Caucus Chair. Sources on the phone this morning say that another Tenenbaum-ite ouster will be revealed shortly. With the factions and the officials united and on the hunt, don’t expect many Tenenbaum-ites to have any political position or pull by the end of the month.
The real question for the Ventura County Republican Party is can the factions come up with a consensus Chairman who will not have to fight for his political life every day until mercifully dispatched. It’s an interesting note, but when strong consensus Chairmen were elected in San Diego, San Bernardino, and Riverside the knife fights between the factions slowed and pretty much stopped. Instead of fighting over the corpse of an organization, the decent people in those counties saw progress and pitched in. The folks who were around just to grind axes faded away, or were helped out the door. Success feeds on success.
Good luck, Ventura County Republicans… the rare opportunity to build a strong and effective organization beckons.
August 7th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Duane’s column was mean-spirited and misinformed. He mentions several people within the Ventura County Central Committee by name, yet fails to recognize those that were involved in removing Leslie – which is a real diservice to readers of his column and of the FlashReport.
From a widely circulated Ventura County e-mail:
Many of you have asked me about the ouster of Leslie Cornejo as Chair of the Ventura County Republican Central Committee. All I can say is that in a move that portends the strategic brilliance to come, the individuals listed below decided that mid-election cycle would be a good time to alienate all the moderate Republicans in the county. They have also alienated the thinking conservatives
Leslie has made every effort to bring the party’s philosophical factions together and respect everyone’s views on social issues. She has made great strides in moving the party forward as a united force. Her contributions have been recognized both locally and nationally.
The members involved removed her “without cause” because they could not remove her through the regular grievance/discipline process. Unlike some of the members initiating the action, she broke no bylaws.
There were over a dozen voting CC members that support Leslie who didn’t attend this meeting because they refused to be witness to the public lynching. Additionally, ex-officio members (candidates or elected officials) that support Leslie were asked to not get involved because it would be ugly and it would be played out in the press and detract from their work.
Leslie had announced months ago that she was stepping down in December after this election cycle was completed. But personal political agendas make for eager beavers. So far, all of the people involved have refused to talk to the press. They forget that they are elected officials and accountable to the 155,000 Republicans in the county.
Attendees of the Special Meeting that voted against Leslie included
Mike Osborn – special envoy for Tony Strickland and ringleader. Three prior unsuccessful challenges for Chair against Leslie
Cristina Martin – candidate for Pedro Nava’s district, fighting for two votes on the Central Committee, ambiguous officer status in the committee, acting in the absence of First Vice President, Dave Tennessen.
Deyla Valenzano – alternate for and married to Chris Valenzano who works/worked for the Stricklands. Deyla was appointed as alternate immediately before the meeting.
Clark Johnson – married to Elton’s campaign manager, Shelly Johnson. Treasurer and Chair of the Bylaw committee
Peggy Sadler – longtime donor and vocal supporter of Elton, very active in women’s Federated organization
Jason Spadaro – staffer for Tom McClintock
Dianne Alexander – long time women’s Federated member and disgruntled volunteer
Don Yates – disgruntled volunteer
Sandy Patrizio – disgruntled volunteer,
Virginia Gonzalez, Reg Richardson and John Absmeier
Mary Osborn – alternate for Audra Strickland and married to Mike Osborn
George Runner’s alternate (Senate District 17 – includes a small part of NE Ventura county). It was the first time he or an alternate has attended a meeting in a year and a half.
Two of the Central Committee officers have broken the endorsement bylaws yet the ByLaw Committee refuses to address the matter. The ByLaw Committee is chaired by Clark Johnson (who publicly endorsed Bob Larkin in the Larkin-Strickland race).
A special meeting had been called by Cristina Martin for August 8 to elect a new Chair. Cristina Martin currently has no clear status within the Central Committee and is operating in the absence of Dave Tennessen, the first vice president. Dave Tennessen has been aware of previous plans to unseat Leslie Cornejo and has stated repeatedly that he does not support such action and would not step in as Chair.
8/7/06 – Dave Tennessen is back. Meeting to elect a new chair has been postponed. Jim Prosser’s removal is being challenged. Leslie’s circumstances of removal is being challanged. The parties involved with Leslie’s removal refuse to talk to the press. There is no consensus on who should be the next chair.
August 7th, 2006 at 12:00 am
You criticize Duane Dichiara for naming names… then you offer derogatory
information about 11 named individuals who did not vote the way you would
have liked. Double standard?
August 7th, 2006 at 12:00 am
I don’t think posting their affiliation is derogatory. And obviously, the disgruntled volunteers are disgruntled, otherwise they wouldn’t be booting out an award winning Chairman in the middle of the election cycle.
My point is that Duane was supporting a double standard plus some journalistic reporting errors. Now all the facts are on the table, and the intelligent readers of the FlashReport can draw their own conclusions. Or they know who to ask if they have further questions. I’d be happy to clarify as well. I can be reached at dteague1@adelphia.net.
August 7th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Katie:
I do not know you, nor do I know anything about Ventura GOP politics.
But, for the life of me, (and I reread the blog entry) I do not see anything even remotely approaching mean-spirited.
Now, for all I know, you may be right and he may be wrong…but, your usage of the term mean-spirited seemed more spin and less truth.
Perhaps, I am just hyper-sensitive to that adjective as I and many of the actions I take are labeled mean-spirited. Perhaps, as a result, I have inordinantly thick skin and the masses would really consider what Duane said to be “mean-spirited.”
Would you mind indulging me and pointing to the specific text you deem mean-spirited?
August 8th, 2006 at 12:00 am
It is mean-spirited because all he did is repeat the talking points as provided to him by the factions that removed Leslie. The attempt to remove Prosser was literally done in the dark of the night so I’m not sure how Duane found other than being notified by someone intimately familiar with Ventura County and interested in besmirching Leslie.
But you are right, I don’t know Duane, so maybe it wasn’t mean-spirited. Maybe he didn’t realize he was serving as a mouthpiece for a group of people that have their own agenda. Perhaps it was just lazy journalism on his part. Citing Stephen Frank would support that hypothesis.
The bottom line is that Leslie is well respected by the people in the community who elected her and all of this is just a blip on the screen. But it is a blip that deserves to be well-lit because it is a lesson for all Republicans in the state of California.
August 8th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Dear Joseph,
Someone reading this blog just e-mailed me to tell me that Duane was working on a campaign here in Ventura County. Peter Foy’s campaign. Which explains why his column sounds like a mouthpiece for the people that are interested in removing Leslie. Many of the same people that want to remove Leslie are helping out Peter Foy in his campaign for Board of Supervisor. It also explains the Tennenbaum focus of Duane’s column – implicates the East County (Gallegly) people instead of the West County (Strickland) people. I would hate to think that people in the Strickland camp are in any way trying to blame the people in the Gallegly camp for the stupid decision to remove the chair in mid election cycle. They both colluded together equally.
Duane, if you are reading this blog can you please verify if you are indeed involved with the Peter Foy campaign? I heard you were his campaign manager. But then I also heard that Mike Osborn was involved in his campaign as well.
I’m sure the readers of your column would appreciate the clarification of your personal position and involvement with Ventura County politics.
If I am wrong in any of my posting, please let me know immediately at danateague1@adelphia.net and I will post an abject apology.
August 8th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Email correction:
dteague1@adelphia.net