Lompoc residents have been organizing in their city to stop an expansion plan by Wal-Mart to turn the existing Wal-Mart store into a Superstore. I recently went to one such meeting. This expansion, the residents feel, will further undermine the local economy and the ability of local business to stay in business.

Other Wal-Mart Protests in the 24th CD are happening in the city of Ventura. This is their website.

A yes vote for Measure C means supporting adoption of an ordinance that would prohibit any retail business larger than 90,000 square feet that devotes more than three percent of its sales floor to groceries and non-taxable items. Wholesale clubs are exempt.

The measure’s supporters don’t want supercenters anywhere in Ventura because they feel such stores breed crime, traffic, and do more to stifle the local economy by domineering small businesses and competing grocers.

But where Measure C’s ballot language doesn’t directly address Wal-Mart as its culprit, proponents use the corporation as valid reasoning behind their determined “Stop Wal-Mart” campaign, started when Wal-Mart leased out the vacant Kmart and announced plans to make its new home there.

Small business has always been the backbone of the American economy. As a  business owner, I am sympathetic and as a Congresswoman, I would work to preserve and strengthen our small businesses.