Candidates assemble their qualifications for November elections
It is another election year for the Conejo Valley, which resides in California’s 42nd state assembly district. The State Assembly is the state of California’s lower house of representatives (state congress). The assembly has 80 members representing individual districts, who serve two-year terms, and historically, and currently, has a super majority of Democrats.
The race in District 42 will be historical to the region as the democratic five year incumbent Jacqui Irwin (D), will face off against her republican challenger Ted Nordblum (R), for one final sixth term of 12 years in office.
Nordblum has lived in and out of the Conejo Valley since 1967. He is known as a former small business owner, though his medical supplies company, Titan Medical DME, Inc, was recently terminated on June 13, 2023. Now that Nordblum is jumping into the political world, a major criticism from his opponents is his lack of experience in government office as Nordblum has never held any such title at any level. Nordblum claims that he is qualified based on his experience of running his small business. “I think I’m more than qualified as a business owner, because the government is a business and it should be handled that way. You should be fiscally responsible with people’s money; you’re taking taxpayer money and you should be transparent and accountable for what you do with their money, they’re trusting you,” Nordblum said.
Before Irwin moved to the Conejo Valley in 1995, she had previously been part of missile and aircraft prototyping operations for Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab and Teledyne Systems Company. After leaving the rocket scientist lifestyle behind, Irwin started participating in local city government, where in 2008 she became mayor of Thousand Oaks. In 2014 Irwin won her first race for assembly in what was once the 44th District, but has since shifted to the 42nd District. Irwin measures out her political tenure as to why she is qualified to run once again. “Obviously, I have an incredible amount of experience after serving on the Thousand Oaks City Council for 10 years and serving in the state legislature. And that background helps me pass better legislation. With the additional experience and seniority, I’m able to get even more resources for our community. So I think it serves the community well to have somebody that has that type of experience,” Irwin said.
Both Nordblum and Irwin’s full interviews are available to watch on the Panther Prowler website, along with our other social media platforms.
