With Steve Bennett's exit from the CA 26 Congressional race, depressed Ventura County Democrats have moaned about the red-to-blue that might have been. It didn't seem that any of the announced Democratic candidates had what it would take to make it to the top two in June's primary. All week, speculation swirled around the possibility of a proven winner who would ride in to rescue the weakening hopes of the rank and file Democratic voters. Then Assemblymember Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica) jumped in with both feet. Brownley says she will establish residency in Oak Park and begin acquainting herself with the parts of CA26 that she has not yet represented in Sacramento. She says she's raised $70K in the past three days, and she's calling around to local government leaders to sound them out on issues and endorsements. While she has a deep education background (Santa Monica Malibu Unified Board of Educ. and Assembly Education Committee), she seems clear-eyed about the significant progressive issues that need attention on the national stage.
Julia can talk about education, that much we know. She can explain how investment in education is like investing in human infrastructure. While President Obama begins to make sense on investments in physical infrastructure like roads, bridges and rail, Brownley may be able to bring clarity to the discussion of education involvement by the feds.
We need to clarify the role of the federal government in local K-12 education while simplifying federal involvement in higher education funding. No Child Left Behind, like Race to the Top, looks to test scores to identify failure and success. Yet we haven't identified why these tests measure what we want our public schools to do for kids. This is a difficult examination that Congress needs to get serious about. On college funding, why do we want to force our next generation to mortgage their education instead of enabling them to graduate debt free so they are free to incur debt in our economy? If they are laboring (assuming they find employment) to pay off college debt, they sure won't be shopping for cars or homes any time soon.
Let's hope Brownley can cut through the labyrinth that is Ventura County voter communication, avoid the death grip of the Strickland-owned Republican Central Committee and get herself into the top two on the general election ballot. The DCCC says it will help, she's begun raising money, and she's not shy about dialing for dollars and endorsements. She may have the winning formula for CA26.