LAKE COUNTY — On Tuesday at 11 a.m. Victoria Brandon, a Lake County resident since 1981, filed her paperwork to run for Lake County District 1 Supervisor.
She is the sole opponent for incumbent Jim Comstock.
“We both want to run a clean campaign based on the issues, Brandon said Wednesday night. “I have high personal regard for Jim. I am running because we need to make some changes on the board. We need somebody innovative and creative who involves all members of the community.”
Brandon plans to hit the streets with a campaign based on voter contact. She will spend the next four months meeting people and asking about issues that are important to people and organizations for the south county and Lake County as a whole. She said she plans on doing a lot of listening rather than a lot of talking.
She wants to address concerns of the challenging economic times and to “build without damaging the small town atmosphere.”
Brandon is a strong proponent of the environment and would like to find creative ways to establish a better economic base by using the county”s assets, promoting agritourism and recreational activities. She would like to see a broader base of visitor amenities.
Brandon has spent her career as a non-fiction writer. She said she has never held an elected office or a staff position, but was on the committee that wrote the agricultural element of the general plan.
Brandon is originally from New York City and was a history major at Brandeis University. She has been in California since 1976.
She said she is concerned about code enforcement issues, illegal marijuana grows on public lands –impacting natural resources and polluting the water. She said “drug cartels on a massive, industrial scale have devastated public lands.”
“I support the right of medical marijuana users to get their medicine in a safe and legal way. To grow their own or collectively, in a manner that doesn”t infringe on the rights of their neighbors. In the long-term, the problem surrounding marijuana use has to be handled on federal level,” she said.
She wants to focus on the importance of the health of the lake and invasive mussel issues by fine-tuning screening and providing outreach programs.
Brandon said what may be the most challenging task is the impending retirement of Kelly Cox, County Administrative Officer. She said, “We need to maintain the strong fiscal guidance he has provided.”
Brandon describes herself as hard-working, responsive to people, accessible to the public, good at working with diverse groups and she says she has the ability to find compromise and bring people together.
She says she has worked with multi-county groups, which would bring service to this county with her watershed approach to regional planning.
For information about Brandon email her at vbrandon@lakelive.info or call 994-1931.
