Moorpark College Adjunct Political Science Professor Dr. Herbert Gooch combined forces with the Acorn Newspaper and California Lutheran University (CLU) to host the face-off of candidates seeking election to the 26th Congressional and the 44th Assembly districts.

Held on the Thousand Oaks campus at the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center, the two-hour event introduced three candidates hoping to unseat incumbent Rep. Julia Brownly: Rafael Dagnesses, Jeff Gorell, and Douglas Kmice. U.S. Brownly did not attend. Three candidates running for the state’s 44th Assembly District, Mario De La Piedra, Jacqui Irwin, and Rob McCoy, also debated. All are featured on the June 3 primary ballot.

McCoy urged young people to get informed.

“Educate yourselves, know what a representative form of government is, know the liberties that we’ve been given and protect those. Write the script and put those politicians in that will uphold those ideals.”

The 26th district includes all of Ventura County except for most of Simi Valley and a coastal strip on the north-end of the county, and also extends into sections of Los Angeles County.

The questions asked to the district runners focused on local issues such as water, job creation, and to either put a ban on fracking or not, giving the audience a real sense of what the runners stand for and represent.

With questions created by Dr. Gooch and both editors of The Acorn, then asked by managing editor of The Acorn newspaper John Loesing, and Editor of the Thousand Oaks Acorn Kyle Jorrey, the questions focused on general topics that the public would want to know.

Crowd reactions varied from candidate to candidate based on their outlook and what they had to say to the people. The majority tended to favor Rob McCoy and Mario De La Piedra over Thousand Oaks Mayor Jacqui Irwin.

Many people proudly wore their Rob McCoy shirts and cheered loudly during his introduction. Feelings were mixed on certain topics and candidates as well, as some had great points and not such great points, reflecting on the people’s emotions.

“In politics I’ve met some of the best people I’ve ever met, and I’ve met some of the very worst,” said Gooch. “It’s the whole gamut.”

However, all politicians had one thing in common, the want and need for younger folks to immerse themselves in the education of politics, as well put people they respect and actually want in office with knowledge.

Dr. Gooch invited his Moorpark College evening Politics class to take part for extra credit, hopefully acting as a catalyst to young voters.

“That’s the problem, not enough young people are engaged,” said Gooch. “Of course, this is the primary. We need more people getting engaged.”

Dr. Gooch also had the event live streamed, explaining that a majority of his students watched the event live online, versus physically going to the event.

With voting by mail ending May 19 and the primary voting taking place at local polls on June 3, more students and people can become more educated on the local candidates running by visiting their websites: marioforassembly.com, jacquiirwin.com, victorymccoy.com, rafaelforcongress.com, jeffgorell.org, and commongroundcommongood.com.