Do you ever have one of those moments when you are sitting at your kitchen table in the morning with a nice cup of coffee and you read something that makes you gag and the coffee comes up through your nose?
Then, the rest of the day, you smell Columbian roast with just a hint of vanilla hazelnut. I hate it when that happens. I had one of those moments just last week.
The Signal last Thursday reported that Christy Smith has decided to try running for state Assembly again after her first campaign ended in miserable failure. Dante Acosta beat her 53.1 percent to 46.9 percent, a substantial drubbing by any measure.
Up comes the coffee. Is that an overtone of mint that I smell?
Let us remember this is after state Democrats pumped more than $1.4 million into Smith’s campaign (per the L.A. Times). Geez, that is a boatload of money for such a poor showing. But here she comes again.
Also, remember that Christy Smith waged one of the most negative, dirty, and underhanded campaigns in recent SCV history. I guess when you have $1.4 mil of outside money you can do whatever you want because you can afford it.
In Thursday’s excellent story written by Gina Ender, Smith announced her candidacy by declaring: “They want to know what they’re getting with their vote and not what they’re not supporting.” This is a school board president saying this?
I’m not sure what Christy is not supporting by not saying what she does not oppose or not support. Not that I find anything wrong with that. Not supporting what you do not oppose is not all bad, eh? Huh?
The story goes on to say that “she plans to work for women’s issues, which she said encompasses all issues.” I’m a little unclear on this one too.
We have flooding problems here in Placerita Canyon. Is that a women’s issue? How about chloride levels in our local water – women had something to do with that? It must be traffic here in the SCV that is a women’s issue. How could I be so blind?
Smith goes on to say that “women are just really hungry to get behind other female candidates.” If a man had said this (or a Republican), The Signal’s Opinion section would be stocked with hateful epistles from the left for days.
Shouldn’t we be ignoring a candidate’s gender and worry about what he or she believes and the policies he or she would champion? That is the problem with candidates who view all issues through their pet concern. It creates a myopia that makes them ultimately ineffective leaders.
Clearly, it comes down to character. Flushed with cash and realizing that she was losing, Smith went negative in the last election in a big way.
During a debate, Smith blind-sided Acosta with an accusation of financial impropriety. Our intrepid Signal investigated this claim and found that of the three alleged “disclosure” events against Dante, two were denied by the regulatory body and the third was settled without acknowledgment of wrongdoing.
In other words, Dante was clean.
A campaign circular was sent out that, to me, look very doctored. Acosta’s picture was there, dark and brooding, staring out seeming to say “I’ve stolen your children and eaten them.”
Frankly, Dante looks to me more like Lou Costello than any criminal or miscreant. I expect him to crack a joke or recite “Who’s on First” before he would think of robbing my home.
One of the final acts before the election was charges of sexual misconduct being leveled against Dante by a former colleague. Don’t you love stuff like that? A nasty little surprise right before the election intended to reverse a failing campaign.
From everything I have read about the sordid episode, there was no proof presented that Acosta acted inappropriately. And why was it a last-minute surprise? We all know why.
This is a matter of character, not a candidate’s sex or race or financial status – or anything else. A dirty campaigner is indicative of a dirty candidate.
C’mon, Democrats. Can’t you pick someone better who can challenge Dante on the issues? Besides, my nose can’t take much more of this.
Steve Lunetta is a resident of Santa Clarita and has decided to switch to green tea. It stings less coming up. He can be reached at [email protected].
