Alger Campaign Moves to Santa Clarita

The CD12 dum dums will no doubt of course say the Alger campaing only exists in the Sister City. Indeed, perhaps flacks for other Assembly campaigns or council offices will even post further comments detailing sexual relations between Mr. Alger and myself. Say what you like, but nothing could be further from the truth. Both Mr. Alger and this old, dead Republican mayor are involved in heterosexual relationships with a woman (no, not the same woman idiots). And before there is any further AD38 (or other ADs) or CD12 titillation, were Mayor Sam to go the Brokeback route, it certainly wouldn't be with Alger (and I am sure he feels the same way).

Now to the issue at hand, 38th Democratic Assembly candidate Jim Alger took his campaign to Santa Clarita, which covers a significant portion of the district. Santa Clarita Valley is of course the home of Alger's likely Republican opponent, former Mayor Cameron Smythe. Conventional wisdom is that a Democrat can't win in the majority Republican bedroom community, but Alger seems to always defy the conventional wisdom.

Indeed, Alger's Democratic opponent - Lyn Shaw-Hilfenhaus - a dyed in the wool union red diaper baby liberal - has zero chance to win against any Republican in the race. Lyn's forces know this, as their intention is not to win the race, but to play along with a Republican-Democratic deal to keep certain seats in the hands of certain parties. Shaw-Hilfenhaus as nominee gives Smythe a free ride to the State Assembly, and in return, she gets several seats on Democratic Central Committees, to which she can appoint pro-unionistas to move the Democratic party even further to the left (if that is possible).

Of course, my own party, the Republicans play similar games, not developing and running competitive candidates in races where they could win, instead they run either goofballs or candidates just to the right of Attila the Hun. In LA County, the Republican leadership treats the party as its personal route to treasure. We all know about the husband of the County party's chairwoman took money to shill for Democrat Jim Hahn for Mayor, rather than working to find a reasonable Republican alternative (sorry Walter, that wouldn't be you).

Getting back to Alger, he represents an opportunity for moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans who care mainly about the economy, education and personal liberties to make a stand. The Alger campaign's contention is that while Shaw-Hilfenhaus is too liberal for the District, Smythe is too conservative for the District. And, they may very well be right. Santa Clarita's denizens may be mainly Republican, but they're not hard core red staters. They believe in law & order, lower taxes, less government and a certain quality of life. Liberals they are not, but they haven't drunk the hard core Republican Kool-Aid. At the same time, as the population in Santa Clarita grows, so does the Democratic registration.

All this adds up to the proposition that Mr. Alger may have chosen the right time to run for this seat.

In other Alger related news, Team Alger reports that they succesfully blocked the party from issuing an endorsement in the primary for the 38th AD. Alger knew, as an outsider, he was not likely to receive the party endorsement himself, all signs pointed to the endorsement being gained by his primary opponent, Lyn Shaw-Hilfenhaus. Alger received enough votes to prevent the endorsement from being voted on at the State Party Convention later this spring.

Alger also announced that he has received the endorsement of Jodell Haws, President of the Simi Valley Democratic Club, and a Regional Director for the National Organization of Women.