stronghold

The first time Democrat Jon Lauritzen ran for the 38th Assembly District, his campaign made headlines when party volunteers charged Simi Valley police officers with harassing and intimidating them as they handed out leaflets supporting his election bid.

Back for another try four years later, Lauritzen, 62, said he and his supporters now feel more welcome in the largely conservative city because the local Democratic club has since taken on a higher profile, aggressively campaigning for Democratic candidates.

But even as a bevy of labor groups walk precincts on behalf of Lauritzen and other Democrats, the retired high school teacher concedes that he is facing long odds in his effort to succeed Republican Tom McClintock, forced from the seat by term limits.

Not only do Republicans greatly outnumber Democrats in the district, which covers Simi Valley, Fillmore and parts of the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, his Republican opponent, physician Keith Richman, has trounced him in fund-raising.

So in the waning days before next week’s election, Lauritzen has his fingers crossed, saying he hopes that after the conservative politics of McClintock, voters in the district will have tired of Republican representation that can get little done in an Assembly controlled by Democrats.

“That’s the only chance I have,” Lauritzen said.

But Richman, 46, who bills himself as a moderate Republican, said voters are not likely to confuse him with McClintock.

The millionaire internist favors abortion rights, opposes Proposition 38 (the school voucher initiative) and advocates increased funding for public education.

“I’m constructive. I can work with people and get things done,” said Richman, who spent $420,000 of his own money to win a close-fought primary in March.

“The conservative wing of the Republican Party put in a lot of money against me, and I had to spend more than I planned,” said Richman, president of a Mission Hills-based medical group. He has raised $727,932, counting his own $420,000 contribution.

Meanwhile, Lauritzen, who has seen little support from Assembly leaders because of the district’s GOP leanings, has been forced to slug it out with the $38,282 he has raised to date, including $17,500 in loans.

The Chatsworth resident, who spent 34 years as a math and computer science teacher, plans to spend the remaining days of the campaign touting his proposals for improving education: strengthening emergency teaching credential requirements, modernizing school facilities, and requiring increased technology training for teachers.

Lauritzen also is calling for state oversight of the massive Newhall Ranch housing project to minimize its effect on roads, sewers, utilities and schools.

“The whole region needs to be looked at in terms of infrastructure,” he said.

Lauritzen calls his opponent a “decent guy,” but he questions Richman’s Republican credentials, because his positions appear to be so similar to Lauritzen’s own. He also takes particular delight in pointing out that Richman’s wife, Deborah, is a registered Democrat.

“He made a strategic move by declaring himself a Republican,” Lauritzen said. “He’d rather be a Democrat, if he thought he could win as one.”

Richman, who said he changed his party registration from Democrat to Republican in 1992, scoffs at Lauritzen’s assertion, and for evidence of his party loyalty he points to his tenure on Los Angeles’ Community Redevelopment Agency as an appointee of Republican Mayor Richard Riordan.

“I’m just a mainstream Republican,” said Richman, who added that he did not know which political party his wife is registered under.

McClintock endorsed Richman’s opponent in the primary, but he has since won the incumbent’s backing, as well as the support of Republican leaders from across Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

Among his top priorities, Richman said, is to push for massive spending on roads, highways and water systems.

“We need to make investments in our future,” Richman said.

And as a physician, Richman said he is keenly interested in health-care reforms that would make insurance more accessible and affordable.

He is also concerned that health-care providers are not being adequately compensated for their services, attributing the recent collapse of Simi Valley-based Family Health Care to insufficient reimbursements from health plans.

“We need to reduce the amount of uncompensated care that providers give,” said Richman, whose campaign received $16,039 from the California Medical Action Committee.

Richman, a Northridge resident and father of two, said he would leave his medical practice, Lakeside Medical Group, if elected. But he has not yet determined whether he would sell his interest in the 250-employee company.

“I see myself as a citizen legislator,” he said.

Also running for the seat is Libertarian candidate Philip Baron, who has raised nearly $3,000 to date. Starting today, his campaign will air commercials on cable channels in Simi Valley and the San Fernando Valley.

Drone attacks hit fuel market in city that serves as headquarters for RSF’s alternative government.

Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group says the country’s army struck a fuel market in the city of Nyala, the RSF’s administrative capital, as part of an intensified aerial campaign against its positions in South Darfur.

For three consecutive days ending Thursday, military drones and warplanes pounded strategic RSF sites across Nyala, including the international airport, military positions and training facilities.

The strike on the fuel market triggered a huge blaze as barrels of fuel exploded, according to footage circulated on social media, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the air.

Youssef Idris Youssef, who heads the RSF’s civil administration in South Darfur, accused the army of deliberately targeting civilians. He described the attack as part of “a systematic policy” to punish Darfur residents for not resisting the RSF presence in their communities.

The Sudanese military has not issued any statement regarding the strikes.

Casualties were reported among both civilians and RSF members involved in the fuel trade.

In the aftermath, RSF intelligence services conducted mass arrests near the targeted site and Nyala’s main market, detaining civilians and military personnel on accusations of providing coordinates to the army, according to local sources.

Nyala holds particular strategic importance as the seat of the RSF’s parallel government, known as TASIS, which the group declared in July. Led by RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, the alternative administration has been widely condemned as possibly fracturing Sudan, but controls significant territory across Darfur.

The city was struck by the army in October when it targeted the RSF and Nyala airport, which has been reportedly used by the RSF as a logistics hub for its forces.

Fighting continues across Darfur

Fighting has raged across Darfur since the RSF captured el-Fasher in October, an offensive marked by atrocities documented by rights groups.

The United States has said the RSF has committed genocide in Darfur.

This week, the RSF announced it had seized the Abu Qumra region in North Darfur and claimed advances towards Um Buru, though joint forces allied with the army disputed RSF assertions that they had also taken the town of Karnoi.

The attack on Nyala came just two days after Sudan’s prime minister, Kamil Idris, presented a peace proposal to the United Nations Security Council calling for RSF withdrawal from captured areas, disarmament in camps, and eventual elections.

The RSF rejected the plan, with spokesman Alaa el-Din Naqd telling Sudanese outlet Radio Dabanga it amounted to “wishful thinking”.

Sudan’s de facto leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, was in Ankara for talks on Thursday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at which Erdogan expressed his support for peace efforts and his opposition to dividing Sudan.

Hours earlier, a senior official in Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council ruled out any negotiations, declaring there could be “no truce and no negotiation with an occupier”.

The war, which erupted in April 2023, has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced nearly 14 million, in what the UN describes as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Since the RSF seized el-Fasher – the last major army stronghold in Darfur – the conflict has shifted to Central Kordofan, splitting Sudan between territories controlled by the military and the RSF.