By Rick Gardner, Past President

​As I write this post, little ghosts and goblins are preparing to invade our neighborhood households. They will make their demands for candy and other goodies, and we will comply or risk having "tricks" inflicted on our persons or domiciles.  ​

And so I reflect on this nightmarish campaign that is mercifully winding down after months of "tricks' being played upon our collective personages.  Of course, the central trickster is Monster Trump, who combines the charming qualities of Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney in their prime.  Trump has single-handedly dismantled the national discourse ... from the ominous threat of climate change, the escalating economic inequality faced by our citizen, and many other issues of great import to our national well-being ... and instead has been cranking out insults to his many perceived enemies at a pace not seen since Don Rickles ruled Las Vegas.

I have been personally insulted to see a man of disrepute such as Trump playing the role of a major party candidate.  But, sad to say, he has been nearly matched by many other members of his failed racketeering enterprise, the so-called Grand Old Party.  I say good-riddance to them all.

With any luck at all, Hillary Clinton will summarily execute Monster Trump on November 8th, and the Democrats will stage a major comeback in the Senate and Congress.  And we can expect Ventura County to deliver Julia back to Congress, Hannah-Beth back to the State Senate, and Jacqui back to the Assembly.  Kamala Harris will almost certainly be our next United States Senator, but if not her, it will be another Democrat, Loretta Sanchez.

The races of most concern to me are local: Carla Castilla for Supervisor and Jameson Lingl for City Council.  They face daunting opposition, and we have to make a final push to help them get into office.

And then we will reach the climatic day, next Tuesday, November 8th.  We'll be busy ... running two polling places in Camarillo, while other members participate in get-out-the-vote activities.  And then mercifully, the madness will finally end, and sanity will once again reign ... 

(Fingers crossed!)

By Rick Gardner, Past President

​Our Club is busy on all fronts as we head towards the Presidential Election on November 8th.  We held our Candidates Luncheon and Garden Party on September 17th, a successful affair with Congresswoman Julia Brownley, State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, Supervisorial candidate Carla Castilla, and City Council candidate Jameson Lingl.  Also participating was out-going supervisor Kathy Long.  We raised a lot of money for the candidates to keep their campaigns in high gear.

We are also staffing our Democratic booth at the Farmers Market every Saturday to register voters and provide them information on the candidates and issues.  Our members are phone banking and canvassing in support of Hillary and all of the candidates at our Garden Party.  We participated in the Labor Day picnic and in the Kennedy Legacy Dinner.  

Soon we will be calling on our overworked members to hang voting slates on doorknobs throughout Camarillo.  Thousands of door hangers will be distributed at our next meeting on October 6th along with specially prepared walking lists provided courtesy of Zero Week Solutions.  And finally, if that wasn't enough, we will be running two polling places on Election Day ... at our usual locations at Camarillo School and at the United Methodist Church.  Our polling place workers are busy taking training and otherwise getting ready for the job to be done on November 8th.

There's a lot on our plates.  But, after all, this is what our mission is all about ... to get Democratic candidates into office to fulfill our progressive agenda.  And this is the time when the rubber hits the road.  We are so close to success ... a blue sweep across all down-ballot races in our area ... and the first female President in our nation's history.  Let's make it happen!
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