Tulare
County -
The only supervisor race in the county was expected to be a hot and heavy one and so far it has lived up to that billing. Charges and counter charges have been flying and with less than a month until the election, it promises to get even more interesting.
What has surfaced the past few weeks are charges – many coming from within Republican circles – that Rouch, a relative newcomer to politics at age 32, has misrepresented himself as being a conservative, fiscal Republican.
“In this race the candidate who is registered Republican is Steven Worthley and his opponent declined to state and is a former Democrat/Green Party member,” said James Henderson, chairman of the Republican Central Committee in Tulare County.
“The issue is he's gone to constituency in Fourth District and lied about who he is. I have no problem with his view, but fact he's lied about it and who he is a problem,” said Henderson, who admitted he does not live in the Fourth District.
The Fourth District takes in the northern edge of Visalia, Goshen, Ivanhoe, a part of Woodlake and the northern end of the county, including Dinuba and Cutler-Orosi.
In the June primary, Worthley won 39 percent of the vote, but Rouch was a close second with 37 percent, forcing the November runoff. Rouch points out that 60 percent of the June vote was for candidates other than Worthley.
Rouch deflected questions about his past, continually saying the race is about the record of his opponent and that he would not “go down the path” of his opponent's smear campaign.
“His (Worthley) campaign has made a choice, we can't run on his record so we need to attack the challenger,” said Rouch. “He's not talking about what he's going to do. He's throwing mud and innuendoes about me.”
However, Worthley said his challenger's character and past are valid issues.
Henderson agrees. “This is a character issue,” said Henderson. “He should have been honest on what he's done. He should come out and tell the truth,” he added.
There are several points that Rouch has claimed that his opponents point to – No. 1 being that they say he once worked for the Sierra Club.
“Not only was it on his resume, but he put it on an application for the city (of Visalia) Environmental Committee,” charge Henderson, adding that Rouch has listed as having worked for the John Kerry for president campaign as well. Kerry is a Democrat.
Those opponents have produced that application and on it Rouch did list as being affiliated with the Sierra Club and the California Wilderness Coalition. However, when asked directly, he did not answer if he had worked for the Sierra Club. “I'm focused on the issues and I'm not going down that rabbit trail,” he responded.
“My opponent voted to raise taxes on farmers,” by voting to end the Williamson Act, he charged, a position Worthley denied, saying he did vote to clean up non-conforming parcels of land that were under property tax protection.
Rouch also cites the raise Supervisors voted themselves two years ago, the alleged Brown Act violations, the lunches, the effort to save the Eastside railroad and Worthley's serving on the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control Board.
“We need to focus on the job, need to focus on the district,” he said, calling allegations about his past efforts to “distract” voters.
Worthley used Rouch's own statement on him, saying that Rouch likes to say that if you want to know what someone will do tomorrow, look at his background. “If someone's not willing to tell you about their past and lying about it, there's a question of integrity,” charged Worthley.
He also denied using Measure R –
the county sales tax – money to purchase the Eastside railroad.
“We've not spent millions of dollars on a bankrupt railroad, and
he says he has only served on the Air Board six years, not ten as charged
by Rouch.
“I see my role on the board to keep the mandate from the EPA and
look out for the interests of businesses and industry. My approach has
always been pro business,” he said.
There have also been charges by both camps of campaign signs being damaged or removed.
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of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit
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