Race for Senate seat looks as one-sided as they come

Alicia Robinson

The Nov. 2 election won’t be nearly as taxing for Republican

Assemblyman John Campbell, who’s running for the 35th District Senate

seat, as the March primary was.

In March, he and primary opponent Ken Maddox, the 68th District

assemblyman, waged a bitter campaign to be the Republican Party

nominee. This time his campaign is relatively low-key despite having

two opponents.

The largely Republican makeup of the 35th District makes Campbell

a shoo-in, but the opening of the seat held by Irvine Sen. Ross

Johnson since 1995 still attracted Democrat Rita Siebert and

Libertarian Timothy Johnson. Neither has run for partisan office

before.

Siebert, 51, was born in New York but has lived in California

since 1963 and now resides in Fountain Valley. A paralegal for an

Anaheim law firm, Siebert said a family history of illness makes

medical and health insurance reforms a priority for her as a

candidate.

Johnson, 48, is a security-systems consultant who just opened an

office in Santa Ana and recently moved to Laguna Niguel. A former

Republican who joined the Libertarian Party in 1999, Johnson

describes himself as an idealist who wants to decrease government

spending and eliminate backroom politics.

After two terms in the Assembly, Campbell still wants to work for

long-term reform of the state’s budget process and energy policies,

and he wants to address the lack of affordable housing in Orange

County.

“To get affordable housing in Orange County today, we will need

additional density,” he said. “What we’ve had that gets in the way of

that is legal issues, regulatory issues and local-government

NIMBYism.”

Government subsidies to pay for housing haven’t worked because

people can cheat to get them, Campbell said. He tried unsuccessfully

last year to change the way local governments get their income, a

formula that encourages retail development because it requires fewer

municipal services.

Siebert said she’s inspired by the criminal attorney she works

for, who fights tirelessly for his clients. She would like to bring a

fresh voice to the legislature to advocate for affordable higher

education.

Before becoming a paralegal, Siebert had a full-time job as a

mother of four children. She was active in her children’s schools and

other activities, volunteering as a coach for one son’s soccer team

so the team could play.

She doesn’t believe in pouring money into campaigns, so personal

contact with people is her main weapon in the Senate battle. She was

able to persuade her husband to become a Democrat, she said.

“You’ve just got to keep talking and talking until something

hits,” she said.

Before he became a security advisor, Johnson worked on political

campaigns for years. He was disgusted that most politicians he saw

gave lip service to constituents while campaigning but then voted the

party line.

“They didn’t stand up for what was right for California, as far as

my belief goes,” he said.

He also holds a license as a psychiatric technician and has worked

in jails and community health programs as a substance-abuse

counselor.

As a Libertarian, he believes in decriminalizing drugs, and

although the party’s immigration stance is to open the borders, in

the current climate the U.S. should work to enforce the immigration

laws it has rather than create new ones, he said.

Johnson said he’s running for Senate to be another voice in the

race. If elected, he knows he would face a second uphill battle --

fighting the legislature’s partisan politics to get things done.

“I’m pretty realistic about not only my chances, but let’s say I

did get in there,” Johnson said. “What I can do is make a heck of a

lot of noise.”