TWO NEWCOMERS BEST VETERAN MIKELS IN UPSET.

Byline: ERIC LEACH Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY -- Judy Mikels had been through plenty of campaigns before in which opponents attacked her record on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and said it was time for a change. And she trounced them.

But this time around, in her bid for a fourth term representing the Simi Valley and Moorpark areas, two political unknowns somehow caught up to her, putting an end to a 12-year run on the board.

Mikels ended up third Tuesday night behind Peter Foy, a businessman and rancher, and Jim Dantona, a consultant. On Wednesday, she wasn't available for comment, but her campaign coordinator, Jarrod DeGonia, said she was surprised and disappointed.

``The voters have made their decision, and she respects it,'' he said. ``Now is a time to re-evaluate what the future holds for her and her family.''

Foy received 38 percent, Dantona got 33 percent and Mikels ended up with 28 percent. Foy and Dantona will face off in November for the Fourth District seat.

Foy said he was excited by the results and stressed his commitment to cutting government waste and promoting law enforcement.

``We believed in the voters, and the voters believed in us and what we stood for and what we wanted to accomplish,'' he said. ``At the end of the day, the voters in this county want to be able to walk the streets and be protected; they want their homes, their schools and their businesses to be safe.''

Dantona echoed that his campaign resonated with voters, saying, ``We were able to put together a large group of people who cared about the issues and cared that they were being ignored.''

Mikels said during the campaign that she had done a good job during her three terms of helping keep Ventura County financially sound and trying to reach fair resolutions when it came to disputes involving development, but Dantona said constituents were concerned the area was growing too fast and that Mikels tended to side with developers against residents.

Foy started his campaign just this spring and said he wanted to cut government waste, boost law enforcement and help the county recoup the costs of the federal government's failure to control illegal immigration.

Herbert Gooch, a California Lutheran University political science professor and authority on Ventura County politics, said Wednesday he was still shocked to see Mikels defeated.

He noted that voter turnout in Ventura County was only 23.5 percent -- unusually low for a gubernatorial primary election -- and said that worked against Mikels.

Although the race was nonpartisan, Foy, 50, and Mikels, 60, are Republicans, and Dantona, 57, is a Democrat.

``The low turnout shrunk the number of voters toward the ideological core of both parties,'' Gooch said.

eric.leach(at)dailynews.com

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