Your average Jake’s Way resident is more likely to have their life impacted by crime and quality-of-life issues than to commit a crime or be a nuisance to their neighbors. It’s fair to say that the crime in their area affects them more than it affects anyone else. I’ve known a lot of hard working people for whom Jake’s Way was their first residence in Santa Clarita. College graduates, families with kids trying to make ends meet, people trying to pick up the pieces in their life yet stay in the same town where they grew up. Knuckleheads, too.

It’s a mixed bag, a problem area, to put it kindly. But it’s a problem that deserves our attention in a way that respects the law-abiding residents of the area.

I’ve had a guarded admiration for Laurie Ender, far more so than most, but this is really indefensible and completely out of line for someone in her position: the Mayor of Santa Clarita. Of course it’s bad for a mayor of one city to demean a nearby city, but it’s far worse to speak so dismissively of an area that’s about to become part of the city.

Interestingly, she offered an apology to the Mayor of Palmdale, but not to the residents of Jake’s Way. This is one of those times where the apology actually makes it worse:

“I would like to reiterate my apology to Palmdale,” she said. “While I was trying to make the point that we need to address a problem, I used a poor choice of words. I’m glad that (Palmdale) Mayor Ledford has accepted my apology.”

Ditto for Ed Colley, whose comments were even worse, but he’s just a longshot candidate.

In annexing Jake’s Way, the city is taking on a serious challenge, voluntarily. It’s going to affect our crime statistics, which won’t make for very good press, but it’s a challenge that we need to take on for the sake of our community. I’m optimistic that the city will do a much better job than the county in every sense, not just in terms of law enforcement resources, but we need our leadership to act like adults to do it right.

This is the first reporting period with reports from all of the candidates and it covers the second half of 2011. So what have our candidates been up to?

We’ll dig deep into these filings over the weekend, but here’s the short of it (as of December 31, 2011):

Bob Kellar 
Started with: $1,412.49
Raised: $10,504
Max donations: two
Spent: $4,879.96
What’s left: $7,036.53
Owes himself: $0

Laurie Ender 
Started with: $2,473.18
Raised: $9,147
Max donations: two
Spent: $570.80
What’s left: $11,049.38
Owes herself: $21,300

Jon Hatami
Started with: $0
Raised: $2,775.00
Max donations: one
Spent: $1,000
What’s left: $1,775.00
Owes himself: $0

TimBen Boydston
Started with: $2,926.41
Raised: $0
Spent: $0
What’s left: $2,926.41
Owes himself: $0

Ed Colley
Started with: $0
Raised: $0
Spent: $51.65
Loaned himself: $5,000
What’s left: $4,948.35
Owes himself: $5,000

• Announcement of a dog license sweep in unincorporated Valencia;
• YMCA has a Pinewood Derby at Saugus High School;
• Pictures of OLPH construction kickoff;
• Energy efficient lights at the City parks; and
• Overnight road closures on the 5 and 14.

• On an equally humorous note, Dave Bossert over at WRB pens a rambling tome on how ANYONE would be better on City Council than Laurie Ender, which then begs the question: Will his head explode when she comes first in the City Council election?
• In the “the po’ people are going to murder us all in our sleep” department, our man Jon Hatami pens an alarmist piece equating the elimination of Section 8 fraud investigators in the Antelope Valley with the imminent invasion of a horde of undesirables into Santa Clarita, also (surprise, surprise) at WRB. Can someone tell me when it is safe to come out from under my bed?

On a more serious note:

• SIGNAL reports that two 11 year olds are detained after starting a brush fire in Canyon Country. YIKES!!! But in a wonderful twist one of the boys confesses to his father who actually brings him to the firefighters to confess.
• I’m not pleased about this one. SIGNAL reports how County will offer 50% off unpaid traffic tickets prior to January 1, 2009. Way to reward scofflaws!!
• Tea Partier Petz asks Santa Clarita government to interfere with people’s constitutional right to “light up the night sky like its Vegas” in an LTE because he likes to look at the “stars.” Sounds like educational elitism to me!

It terms of raw political capital, it’s safe to that Smyth is only second to Buck McKeon in the SCV. With McKeon’s wife in the race, Smyth’s support in the race to fill his expiring Assembly seat is just about the biggest prize up for grabs in this campaign.

There’s no mention of an endorsement here or elsewhere, and even if he did, Smyth has endorsed opposing candidates before. But to my recollection, lending his name and time for a fundraiser in a heavily contested primary is a first for Cameron. I don’t know much about his history with Wilk, but for what it’s worth Smyth’s would-be Senate campaign gave $250 to Wilk’s COC race last year, the only donation it made during the last filing period.

I really expected Smyth to keep an arm’s distance from this race. Consider that Wilk is running against not only the wife of a very powerful Congressman, but also Smyth’s very own local field representative. We’ll just have to see how this plays out.

*Full text here, if you’re into that kinda thing. Note the clever minimum donation of $99, which is just shy of the $100 disclosure threshold.

This is the second VW Superbowl ad that’s made reference to Star Wars. Their nerd-cred is inspiring me to give them a second look!