Pavley defeats Republican upstart Zink





ELECTED—Fran Pavley is embraced by supporters Harvey and Connie Lapin of Northridge.

ELECTED—Fran Pavley is embraced by supporters Harvey and Connie Lapin of Northridge.

Despite losing to Todd Zink in the June primary, Democrat Fran Pavley turned the tables in Tuesday’s general election and beat her Republican opponent by 5 percentage points in the race for the newly configured 27th Senate District, which includes Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Simi Valley and Camarillo.

Pavley defeated her GOP challenger with 52.6 percent of the more than 281,000 votes that were cast.

Democratshelda6percent registration advantage over Republicans in the new district.

The campaign for the 27th District was marred by attacks from both sides.

A former school teacher, mayor of Agoura Hills and Assembly member who was elected to the California Senate in 2008, Pavley said she worked hard to gain voter recognition in the new territory.

“It’s the district with the closest registration margins in the state. It’s not based on who is most qualified or experienced,” but on political affiliation, Pavley told The Acorn Tuesday night as she waited for results with about 200 supporters in the Agoura/Calabasas Community Center.

Zink, a 43-year-old Westlake Village resident who is a district attorney in Los Angeles County and a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves, congratulated his opponent.

“I wish her the best on behalf of people of California,” said Zink, who beat Pavley 56 to 44 percent in Ventura County but lost 59 to 41 percent in the Los Angeles County precincts.

Zink did not rule out a future run for public office.

Pavley, 63, said she’s ready to “hit the ground running.”

Because voters approved Gov. Brown’s Proposition 30 tax measure, the state will now be able to avoid $6 billion in automatic cuts and solve at least some of the criti- cal problems that have plagued California.

“Prop. 30 will stabilize the budget and allow us to move forward investing not only in education, but infrastructure,” Pavley said. The money will also enable the state to maintain public safety funding for cities and counties which were affected by an influx of state prisoners.

Ray Bishop, a Tarzana resident, said Pavley is an approachable and responsive leader.

“She’s down to earth and she’s a strong advocate for education and one of the greatest and best environmentalists we have in the country,” Bishop said.

The local Senate race was one of many contests that attracted a steady stream of voters to the polls on Tuesday.

“People were lined up at 7 a.m., and we haven’t had a slack moment,” said Rose Topliss, a poll worker at the Agoura/Calabasas Community Center who said she noticed a large number of young people voting this year.

Lamont Parks of Agoura said the economy, women’s rights and foreign policy were some of the top issues that brought him to the polls.

“Our American soldiers should be back here, instead of fighting overseas. We need to focus here and fix up America and get America back to work,” said Parks, who voted for Barack Obama.

Philip and Shirley Cameron of Calabasas supported the Republican ticket.

They said the economy was their number one concern in this election.

“It’s a duel between socialism and capitalism,” said Shirley Cameron.


CRUNCH TIME—Todd Zink, right, goes over the election night numbers with a staffer.

CRUNCH TIME—Todd Zink, right, goes over the election night numbers with a staffer.

 

 

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