Ojai Republican outlines views in U.S. House race

Photo by Anthony Plascencia, Ventura County Star

Akiva Werbalowsky of Ojai plans to run for the 26th Congressional District U.S. House seat on the Republican ticket.

For Tony Strickland, it was a backdrop of vintage warplanes.

Linda Parks? A reading of the Declaration of Independence at Freedom Park.

The third Republican to enter the 26th Congressional District race chose a different setting for his campaign kickoff: a tavern.

Akiva Werbalowsky, a 47-year-old Ojai resident, believes his brand of poetic environmentalism is what's needed to lead in the newly drawn U.S. House district that includes most of Ventura County.

"There is an opportunity for the Republican who goes old-school conservative and says, 'No destroying our natural resources for dollars,' " he said while enjoying a Newcastle at O'Leary's Side Bar on Telephone Road in Ventura on Thursday evening.

The self-described permaculture designer is the seventh person to enter the crowded field in what is expected to be an expensive race that will muster big campaign machinery from the two major parties.

His 5 p.m. announcement started at the Ventura County Government Center, where he showed up solo wearing a casual shirt and flip-flops. The event was advertised to local media outlets in a release that read: "I'll have a short press conference and then whomever wants can walk with me to a tavern for straight talk, cerveza, soft drinks and more." A reporter and a photographer turned up.

Werbalowsky tells his tale this way: He grew up in upstate New York, got his undergraduate degree in commerce and liberal arts at the University of Virginia and eventually made his way to Santa Barbara, where organic and year-round gardening changed his life. He got a graduate degree in education and has spent time working at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo as well as for Apple in Florida.

"I see the new California 26th District — as I call it, the Ventura bioregion — as a center of skills training and celebration," he said.

At a corner table under a television screen where the Lakers game glowed overhead, he spun a string of intricate answers:

"There's a wave of McJobism that is tethered to the global financial system rapidly degrading what were once healthy ecosystems."

Or: "Some of the strongest and clearest thinkers about the environment are Republicans unswayed by the overcommercialization of the GOP."

Photo by Anthony Plascencia, Ventura County Star

Akiva Werbalowsky of Ojai visits O'Leary's Side Bar in Ventura, where he planned to answer questions about his plans to run for the U.S. House as a Republican.

Not only is the 26th a new district with no incumbent running, but the June primary will be California's first test of a new system under which the top two finishers, regardless of party, will go on to November's general election.

The ticket won't be finalized until mid-March, but for now Strickland, the state senator from Moorpark, and Parks, the county supervisor from Thousand Oaks, have announced on the Republican side along with Werbalowsky. Parks has indicated she might switch to a designation indicating no party preference.

Four Democrats also have announced: Steve Bennett, a county supervisor; David Pollock, Moorpark's mayor pro tem; Jess Herrera, an Oxnard Harbor District commissioner; and David Cruz Thayne, a businessman from Westlake Village. The four Democrats met in Oxnard on Wednesday night for a well-attended Democratic club question-and-answer session that covered a range of questions submitted by members.

The state Democratic Party could endorse a candidate at its convention this weekend, where a recent endorsement dispute between Bennett and Pollock will be settled.

The state Republican Party seems almost certain to back Strickland.

Long-serving U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly, a Simi Valley Republican, would have been considered the incumbent in the 26th, but Gallegly has said he won't seek another term.

The district includes all of Ventura County except most of Simi Valley and a small part of Ventura.