Letters to the editor: Mistake by supervisors; right-wing propaganda

Ventura County Star
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Supervisors wrong to OK repeal

On March 28, Supervisors Parvin, Gorell and Long voted to repeal the Campaign Finance Ordinance in its entirety, eliminating local campaign contribution and expenditure limits.

They did this despite hundreds of emails and more than 80 public comments asking them to keep the law in place and reject the proposal to repeal it.

I asked Supervisors Parvin and Gorell to not insult the voters’ intelligence with their excuse that by letting candidates raise thousands more dollars per contributor it would cause Independent Expenditure Committees to spend less.

Gorell and Parvin say that “we’ve been lazy as a county” in monitoring and adjusting the contribution limit for inflation and that “we don’t have the ability at the county level” to do that. Well, since the law was adopted the Board of Supervisors routinely updated the ordinance, including raising the contribution limits.

They complain that people must track campaign donations for different offices on different websites and that “people don’t understand there’s a difference.” Saying that people don’t know how to navigate websites is a poor excuse and shows contempt to constituents.

Supervisors Gorell, Parvin and Long heard overwhelmingly from local constituents that, like most Americans, favor less money in politics, not more. Yet these supervisors voted to have their contributors give them up to $5,500 per person instead of $750.

Ventura County is special for many reasons, one of which is that we value the efficacy and integrity and fairness of our local electoral process. Only Supervisors Matt LaVere and Vianey Lopez heard and valued and supported the overwhelming voice of the community.

Any next steps in this matter are now up to the citizenry. It is clear that it is up to us to keep our elections open, transparent and fair because the board majority does not share our values.

Bernardo Perez, Moorpark

Right-wing propaganda machine

Re: Jim Kentosh’s March 28 letter, “The danger of being ‘woke’ ”:

I see that Mr. Kentosh has hit most of the popular right-wing propaganda machine talking points. Let’s take a look at some examples of not being “woke”:

  • Staging a deadly insurrection designed to overthrow the government.

  • Forcing a 10-year-old girl to carry a rapist’s baby to term.

  • Ignore public health measures designed to protect the health of others.

  • Ignore the fact that school children are being gunned down.

  • Allow children in Arkansas to work a shift in the packing house.

I could go on. It’s my belief that years from now children will read about the right-wing propaganda machine (Fox News/Breitbart/OAN/Newsmax/Daily Wire) educated members of dear leader’s base in their American history textbook and realize why they never met their grandparents.

Because grandma and grandpa were brainwashed followers who couldn’t form an original thought and believed everything the failed casino operator who promised them a white America said. And their children disowned them.

Tim Hansen, Ventura

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Letters Mistake by supervisors; right-wing propaganda