Clovis Councilman Nathan Magsig has been pounding away at supervisorial opponent Debbie Poochigian for the past several weeks. Poochigian has finally countered, raising questions in campaign ads about the source of Magsig's private salary, and saying he has voted to increase his public salary three times in six years.
Magsig is executive director of the Coalition for Urban Renewal Excellence, a nonprofit foundation that builds homes for needy families. Local developers partner with CURE on some projects, and Poochigian's ad says Magsig and the developers "scratch" each other's backs on his pay and their projects when they come before the council.
This is already a very expensive race, with the candidates raising more than $1 million between them. You can bet it will get even nastier before Tuesday's election. Magsig and Poochigian are seeking the District 5 seat being vacated by Supervisor Bob Waterston, who is not running for re-election.
Magsig's ads have characterized Poochigian with little connection to the county. and suggests her real loyalty is to state government in Sacramento. That ignores the facts that her father, Deran Koligian, was a longtime supervisor in Fresno County, and that her husband, Chuck Poochigian, represented the region in the Legislature for a generation.
This is a tough one cause I think Magsig has been more involved with local issues and at the same time it could be helpful to have connections in Sac as well. May the best person win.
I am saddened by both candidates' resort to negative ads. Neither of their ads is fair nor very factually accurate. Too bad they could not stick to experience and issues. Magsig does have extensive local experience, though.
The more this campaign drags on, the more I think this race is a choice between the lesser of two evils. Both candidates may be nice people in real life (I don't know them personally, so I can't say). But their politics are just more of the "same ol' same-o" that turns voters off in droves.