The Pappas-Farr Race is Not THAT Close!

I saw over at The Indy that Steve Pappas' $100,000 supporter thinks he was "acorned". Now that the Chicago organization has become an verb, I'm afraid it will forever be in the right wing lexicon right next to socialism.

Nancy Crawford-Hall, owner of the Santa Ynez Valley Journal, seems to think supervisorial candidate Steve Pappas came a lot closer to beating Doreen Farr than it looks on paper. With a 2.27% spread with 35,621 votes, I would be hard pressed to say he has a chance of surpassing Farr. 51% to 48% races generally do not get recounted and Pappas has apparently caused $6-7,000 of the Elections Division time up to this point. To be fair, the Elections Division didn't have to do the work but probably made a good decision in doing so as there were some questions worth answering.

This is a waste, however, of taxpayer money. Bully on Pappas for looking for integrity in the voting process but it looks as if County Clerk-Recorder Joe Holland is doing his job. A machine count which would be conducted today or tomorrow would be significantly more expensive. If there is one, Pappas and Crawford-Hall should be ready to pay for it.

Voter Registration "Slamming" in Ventura County

As a follow up to the recent post -- see the talk about voter registration slamming at the Ventura County Star.

Dem Dirty Tricks in Ventura? or CRP Payback?

General Counsel to the California Republican Party Charles Bell has sent a cease and desist order (PDF of his letter)to the chairs of the San Bernadino and Ventura Democratic Party chairs over a series of voter registration drive dramas that are unfolding in these targeted counties. Some of the key points/allegations:

• Threatening to arrest or otherwise interfere with voter registration activities in San Bernadino, Riverside and Ventura Counties.
  
  
• Interfering with voter registration activities by offering a $5,000 reward for reporting illegal incidents of violations of voter registration law.
  

Apparently, one of the above resulted in a violent incident in Ventura County which is documented in a letter to Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten. The US Attorney's Office got one too for good measure.

These three counties have had issues around voter registration drives for many years and have been the targets of the respective political party's for even longer. There's a few problems with the above allegations -- but it would take a post three times as long as this to even get started.

I'm not clear the Democrats had much to do with the alleged assault on a Republican voter registration worker, and I find that action unconscionable (even if the Republican worker really did dupe the guys' daughter -- see the Totten link above for an interesting read). I'm also not sure $5,000 is enough for anyone to try to create problems to report to the Ventura Democratic Party who may not even have $5,000 in the bank right now. Then again, desperate times call for desperate measures.

What I do know is that the Strickland Fracas and the rather silly police and media report follow-up likely did not help matters. Perhaps Republican payback for Ventura Democrats is a beach?