Ferial Masry, Candidate for 37th Assembly District is saluting MANNA of Conejo Valley at her campaign kickoff on May 2, 2010.

Ferial’s perseverance has been years in the making and now she has an Open Seat! High School Civic & American Government Teacher at Distinguished San Fernando Valley School. She is a grassroots activist, small business owner, labor member, neighbor, friend, mother, wife, committed community member, and she has name recognition.

ADMITTANCE: Bring several dry goods or canned food, your dancing partner, shoes and noise makers. Free ample parking. Open to the community. Great Networking! Free hors d’ oeuvres, Desserts & Drinks! Ventura County 2010 Candidates, Propositions, Voter Registration & Special Guests. Opportunities available for campaign endorsements and fund raising.

LOCATION: Casa De La Senda Clubhouse, 3780 Cabrillo Avenue, Newbury Park, CA 91320
Date: May 2, 2010
TIME: 3 p.m. – 6 p.m.
RSVP: Ventura County (805) 498-7608; LA County (661) 295-9318

Sponsored by Friends to Elect Ferial Masry for (California’s 37th) Assembly District, 2010.
FPPC ID # 1321069 http://www.ferialmasryforassembly.com
POB #19244, Newbury Park, CA 91320‐0213; MasryforASSEMBLY@GMAIL.COM;
Ventura County: 805‐498‐7068 or Los Angeles County: 661‐295‐9318
Financial Contribution limited to $3,600 per person. Contributions are not tax deductible

Ventura, CA – Thursday night, 3/25/2010 The Democratic Club of Ventura and Ventura County Democratic Party presented “2010 Democratic Candidate Town Hall” at the Topping Room, E.P Foster Library, 651 Main Street, Downtown.

Forty-five people attended the town hall meeting hosted by Helen Conly, Vice President and event coordinator. The program opened with political consultant and local software business creator David Maron, who was emcee.

Sheriff hopeful, Geoff Dean assured the audience that “political persuasion or party won’t be the catalyst behind him giving out future arrests. Criminality is not parceled out by whether or not you are a republican”, said the avowed Republican candidate.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=crazycatherder#p/u/7/WP6OwoNQC48
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=crazycatherder#p/u/6/zUI51j9XJWc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1n_XoQmOTY

Written questions from the audience were also asked by Maron.

Next was Ferial Masry with a fifteen-minute presentation. Masry expressed the need for California, the 6th largest economy in the world, to strive to become the state where business owners create products and services that can be used globally, to educate and prepare our students to be the 21st century work force instead of going to foreign countries and to reconsider green initiatives that supplement sustainable energy resources and careers.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=crazycatherder#p/u/4/JWXGarXgSE0
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=crazycatherder#p/u/3/ILojAzgjTdA
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=crazycatherder#p/u/2/GG15ZBYUQDM

The 37th Assembly District includes the following cities: Acton, Agua Dulce, Camarillo, Canoga Park, Castaic, Chatsworth, Fillmore, Los Angeles, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Oak View, Ojai, Piru, Santa Paula, Simi Valley, Somis, Thousand Oaks, Val Verde, West Hills, and Westlake Village.

As opposed to prior advertising, the program wasn’t televised although some of the content was captured by Todd Hoover a videographer from the Santa Clarita area.

Other participants were Ed Summers and Peggy O’Reilly, both running for Treasurer; Jim Dantona, running for County Clerk. For more information regarding the 2-1/2 hour town hall see: http://www.youtube.com/user/crazycatherder#p/u

The Democratic Club of Camarillo will welcome three candidates seeking political office at the Thursday, April 1 general meeting. The club expects to host Ferial Masry, candidate for state assembly; Jim Dantona, who is running for County Clerk-Recorder; and Robert Taylor and Ellen Conroy, who are running against each other for Ventura County Superior Court. In addition, Becky Shofield with the US Postal Service will be on hand with comments about the postal service and how it compares to FedEx.

Socializing will begin at 6:15 p.m. with the program starting at 7:00 p.m.  The club meets in the Orchid Building, 816 Camarillo Springs Road, which is located at the Camarillo Springs Exit from the South 101. The meeting is free and open to the public.  Call 805/987-1846 for additional information.

Speaker will be 37th Assembly District Candidate and DCCV member Ferial Masry. We will welcome new members, discuss upcoming events and conduct general club business. 

Our charity will be CVUSD!  We are asking that members bring in school supplies and backbacks and classroom supplies.  Paper, pens, pencils, maps, hand sanitizer and kleenex would be some examples. 

Full disclosure: I am president of The Pollux Group, a qualitative consulting firm. My firm worked this cycle (almost entirely pro bono) for Eric Bauman’s LACDP on multiple races, including that of Ferial Masry in AD-37.

Eric Bauman, chair of the LACDP, announced in a conference call to supporters and media this evening that he has dropped out of the race for CDP Chair, for all intents and purposes ceding the field to the more institutionally backed John Burton, whose long history of service to the Party and fundraising prowess have earned him the endorsements of many of the Party’s leading lights.

Why should Ventura Democrats care? Because Bauman, in addition to being a Southern Californian, viscerally understands the importance of having a real 58-county strategy in California. The State Party came too little, too late to the aid of fantastic Democrats like Hannah-Beth Jackson and Ferial Masry. These local Democrats came within inches of victory and could have claimed another much-needed Assembly and State Senate seat for Democrats, even as some unmentionables retained $1.5 million Party dollars for personal defense funds, and much of the rest was showered on almost shoe-in or longer-shot races elsewhere in the state, particularly in the North.

The practical effect of Bauman’s dropping out of the race is that Ventura County Democrats (and those in the Inland Empire, where gains are also there to be made) will have to fight harder to get the support we need from the State Party to turn the registration gains made in our newly blue and highly competitive districts into electoral victories. Like it or not, money and seasoned strategists can make or break campaigns, and Ventura Democrats cannot do it alone. Eric Bauman would have been an extraordinary asset as CDP Chair, because he understands the crucial importance of areas like Ventura to the future of California and the Democratic Party

The good news, however, is that Eric is now running for Vice-Chair of the CDP. Unforuntately, in so doing, he runs against another good friend of mine, 58-county strategy supporter, outstanding progressive and head of our state blog Calitics, Brian Leubitz. My blogging loyalties are with Brian; my Southern California loyalties are with Eric. Choosing between them is like a parent picking favorites among their own children; I personally endorse them both and wish the best for each of them.

Whichever of them takes the seat, however, will need our full support in bringing the 58-county vision to the often entrenched mentality of the CDP.

For more on the leading Vice-Chair candidates, see their websites:
Eric Bauman
Brian Leubitz

The protracted count is finally over, and it appears that Hannah-Beth Jackson’s outsize effort to defeat Phony Tony Strickland has come up just short. With only a few hundred ballots left to count, Strickland currently maintains a 903 vote lead out of 414,587 ballots cast. That margin is .2%: well within the margin necessary for a mandatory recount request by the Jackson campaign. Unfortunately, as the pro-Strickland blog Policy Report correctly notes, such a recount effort would almost certainly be insufficient to net Hannah-Beth the votes she would need to overtake Strickland’s lead, even were the final votes to close the gap to 700 or 800:

According to some experts, a recount of all 400,000+ ballots might yield a variance of 150 votes in one direction or the other at great cost. Gaining 800 votes in an election of this size is next to impossible.

Hannah-Beth has done the gracious thing and conceded the race:

With the latest totals showing Strickland hanging on to the lead by a little over 900 votes, Jackson said a victory was not mathematically possible.

“I’m disappointed, but I think that it’s pretty clear at this point in time, we’re not going to be able to catch up,” she said.

Strickland is due to be sworn in Monday in Sacramento. He will represent voters in most of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties as well as the northwest corner of Los Angeles County, including Santa Clarita and Stevenson Ranch.

The outcome has been in doubt since the Nov. 4 election, but by Wednesday both candidates agreed that Strickland had won.

Congratulations to Hannah-Beth Jackson and all her volunteers, supporters and staff who ran a courageous campaign against a less than honorable opponent, giving it everything they had to deliver quality representation to the people in SD-19.

This marks the end of two long and arduous races eked out by narrow margins in Ventura County by both Tony and Audra Strickland, who will be attempting to consolidate their power base. Unfortunately for them, however, their electoral future does not look bright. It was Ventura County that gave Strickland his victory, but that result is a relic of a Ventura whose demographics and electoral distribution are rapidly changing. By 2012, there is little doubt that Ventura’s Democratic Majority will deliver a majority of votes for the Democrat. As I said before, there are three chief reasons for this:

The first is that Ventura County flipped from red to blue earlier this year in terms of voter registrations–and those numbers have shifted even farther in our direction since. This is not just due to discontent with Bush and the Obama Effect: emigres from Los Angeles are swelling Ventura County’s ranks as more and more Angelenos come to appreciate this oft-overlooked area’s natural advantages. The path to victory for Republicans like Tony Strickland is only going to get steeper from here.

Second, Obama’s first term will likely end up going smoothly with good approval ratings, or very poorly with low approval ratings. Given the precarious, sour and moody state of the nation, we’re unlikely to see an apathetic, middling result. As a consequence, the next presidential election is unlikely to be a close contest one way or another. Our poor experiences in California this year will likely have taught us that we need to Stay for Change–especially if a Democratic Governor is elected in 2010, putting GOP legislators as the biggest remaining obstacle to real change in California.

But Tony’s third and biggest problem is that as an incumbent he will have 4-year voting record in the State Senate. Tony’s campaign this year was built entirely on lies; so much so, in fact, that I can say with all sincerity that he ran the most dishonest campaign I’ve personally had the misfortune of seeing up close. He will no longer be able to run as an “independent”, as all his yard signs and mailers deceitfully claimed. He will no longer be able to claim “green” credentials by posing as an alternative energy entrepreneur. He will simply be the incumbent: the Republican incumbent, and with a track record to boot.

So assuming that demography is destiny and the remaining ballots sort themselves out as poorly as we expect, it’s not the end of the road, but merely the beginning. The Stricklands will have earned themselves 2 to 4 years of respite through dishonest campaigning. More Democratic voters, increased intensity, and an unequivocal track record will see them on their way out of Sacramento in a few short years.

But we can’t do it without your help. Today we begin Strickland Watch: it will be our duty to shadow every move and every vote Tony and Audra Strickland make in Sacramento. So far, the Stricklands have made their careers by pretending to be something other than the hard right, corporate sockpuppets they are. The only antidote to such poison is sunlight and exposure, and a full accounting of every single vote and dollar taken by each of them over the course of the next two to four years.

For his part, Tony Strickland is mouthing the right words:

“We need to definitely do whatever we can to reach across party lines to fix the problems of the state,” he said.

Unfortunately, we’ve heard this from Strickland before. How he and his wife actually vote is another matter. If their history is any indication, their bipartisan rhetoric will be belied by a hardline ideological stance. Democrats in Ventura County-myself included–did an inadequate job of informing our friends, neighbors and community of the Stricklands’ extremist record. It’s up to us to make sure that doesn’t happen again, and to deliver to Ventura County the competent, progressive representation it has long deserved and been waiting for.

It is with a heavy heart that I report the news that things aren’t looking good in the Jackson-Strickland race here in SD-19. Strickland has retaken a lead in the provisional and absentee counts that he is unlikely to relinquish barring a small miracle, as favorable Santa Barbara County is nearly entirely counted, leaving pro-Strickland Ventura County and the pro-Strickland sliver of L.A. County to probably pad his lead. The Santa Barbara Independent has more:

Tony Strickland surged to a 1,560 vote lead over Hannah-Beth Jackson Wednesday, on the strength of newly counted ballots in Ventura County. Santa Barbara county’s registrar also reported counting new ballots, which favored the Democrat, but not by nearly enough to make up for the Republican’s strength in Ventura.

It is the first significant lead for either candidate in the closely-contested 19th state senate district since Election Day, and puts Strickland in a commanding position, as counting continues in three counties with portions of the sprawling district.

The overall tally now stands at:
Strickland 187,631 (50.20)
Jackson 186,071 (49.79)

A 1,560 vote lead normally wouldn’t be insurmountable with well over 50,000 votes left to count. Unfortunately, most of those voters are likely to accrue in Strickland’s favor:

About 1,000 vote by mail ballots remain to be counted in Santa Barbara County, the only place where she has run ahead of Strickland, in addition to about 6,000 provisional ballots; the latter are likely to favor Jackson, as many of them are believed to have been cast by late-registering UCSB students.

However, Strickland is winning handily in Ventura County, which has about 40,000 absentees and 15,000 provisionals outstanding; he has also run well ahead of Jackson in the small part of the district that is in L.A. County. There, the registrar has about 225,000 more vote by mail ballots to count, but only a small number of them are in the 19th district.

Make no mistake about it: this is a tough loss to take if all goes as it appears. For me, it’s even tougher than Prop 8, and not just because I live in the district. With Prop 8, there was a sense that we lost due to complacency and poor messaging; with Hannah-Beth, we made our best case and put everything we could into the fight, given the simultaneous urgency of a national election. The idea that extremist Phony Tony Strickland will be my State Senator for the next four years is literally sickening to me.

But there is some good news for the future that should worry both of the execrable Stricklands. Red Zone candidate Ferial Masry ran a surprisingly close race against Audra Strickland in the 37th Assembly district representing parts of Ventura and L.A. counties, coming within 3 points of victory in that tough district (and this despite numerous disadvantages in funding, candidate support and perceived “Americanness”). There is no reason to believe that we cannot build on this success by holding Audra accountable for her votes.

As for Tony? He’s got three big problems. The first is that Ventura County flipped from red to blue earlier this year in terms of voter registrations–and those numbers have shifted even farther in our direction since. This is not just due to discontent with Bush and the Obama Effect: emigres from Los Angeles are swelling Ventura County’s ranks as more and more Angelenos come to appreciate this oft-overlooked area’s natural advantages. The path to victory for Republicans like Tony Strickland is only going to get steeper from here.

Second, Obama’s first term will likely end up going smoothly with good approval ratings, or very poorly with low approval ratings. Given the precarious, sour and moody state of the nation, we’re unlikely to see an apathetic, middling result. As a consequence, the next presidential election is unlikely to be a close contest one way or another. Our poor experiences in California this year will likely have taught us that we need to Stay for Change–especially if a Democratic Governor is elected in 2010, putting GOP legislators as the biggest remaining obstacle to real change in California.

But Tony’s third and biggest problem is that as an incumbent he will have 4-year voting record in the State Senate. Tony’s campaign this year was built entirely on lies; so much so, in fact, that I can say with all sincerity that he ran the most dishonest campaign I’ve personally had the misfortune of seeing up close. He will no longer be able to run as an “independent”, as all his yard signs and mailers deceitfully claimed. He will no longer be able to claim “green” credentials by posing as an alternative energy entrepreneur. He will simply be the incumbent: the Republican incumbent, and with a track record to boot.

So assuming that demography is destiny and the remaining ballots sort themselves out as poorly as we expect, it’s not the end of the road, but merely the beginning. The Stricklands will have earned themselves 2 to 4 years of respite through dishonest campaigning. More Democratic voters, increased intensity, and an unequivocal track record will see them on their way out of Sacramento in a few short years.

Most Americans would agree the last eight years under the Bush Administration have been a disaster. Two wars, dramatically increased debt, ballooning government size and cataclysmic economic events have strained our country’s resources and tarnished our reputation in the world.

We have also seen an insidious rise in the influence big corporations have on the way our government conducts its business. For example, a former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute was allowed to rewrite and soften federal reports on global warming. A scandal alleging the exchange of gifts, sexual favors and illegal drug use between Interior Department employees responsible for collecting oil lease royalties, and oil company workers hit the news in September.

Legislation designed to better police the lending industry, whose greed is at the root of the financial upheaval, has been continually watered down at the urging of the financial services industry. Now we are rewarding this excess with taxpayer-funded bailouts.

A culture of lobbying and outside influences has invaded local politics as well:

• The Republican-controlled Ventura County Board of Education has a $396,000 contract with two outside lobbying firms who have both donated money to Tony Strickland. These lobbyists have produced little more than additional bills for local taxpayers and a possible partnership with one of their own clients, a private Christian college in Indiana, which could help build the college a new $8.5 million building but do little for Ventura County students.

• The Ventura County Republican Central Committee accepted a $50,000 donation from Altria, parent company of tobacco giant Philip Morris, on behalf of Strickland’s State Senate campaign. Strickland’s past votes have favored tobacco companies.

• Strickland’s campaign is heavily financed by outside influences including insurance, oil, alcohol, tobacco, gambling and banking. As an assembly member he consistently voted in favor of these interests and against bills to protect the health of our citizens and the environment and to regulate predatory lenders.

• Individual donations to Strickland’s campaign show something remarkable: 66 percent have come from individuals who live elsewhere in California or outside the state. In the case of his opponent, Hannah-Beth Jackson, 62 percent come from individuals who live in the Senate district.

• Assemblywoman Audra Strickland’s campaign contributions show a similar pattern of outside interests with almost no donors from inside the district

It is time for voters to reject this culture of lobbying and corporate greed, which pays politicians to do its bidding. The Ventura County Democratic Central Committee urges voters to cast their ballots for candidates Hannah-Beth Jackson for State Senate District 19, Fran Pavley for the 23rd Senate District, Ferial Masry for the 37th Assembly District, Carole Lutness for the 38th Assembly District, Marta Jorgensen for U.S. Congress and Mark Lisagor and Ramon Flores for the Ventura County Board of Education.

Joseph O’Neill, Chair, Ventura County Democratic Central Committee

Most Americans would agree the last eight years under the Bush Administration have been a disaster. Two wars, dramatically increased debt, ballooning government size and cataclysmic economic events have strained our country’s resources and tarnished our reputation in the world.

We have also seen an insidious rise in the influence big corporations have on the way our government conducts its business. For example, a former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute was allowed to rewrite and soften federal reports on global warming. A scandal alleging the exchange of gifts, sexual favors and illegal drug use between Interior Department employees responsible for collecting oil lease royalties, and oil company workers hit the news in September.

Legislation designed to better police the lending industry, whose greed is at the root of the financial upheaval, has been continually watered down at the urging of the financial services industry. Now we are rewarding this excess with taxpayer-funded bailouts.

A culture of lobbying and outside influences has invaded local politics as well:

• The Republican-controlled Ventura County Board of Education has a $396,000 contract with two outside lobbying firms who have both donated money to Tony Strickland. These lobbyists have produced little more than additional bills for local taxpayers and a possible partnership with one of their own clients, a private Christian college in Indiana, which could help build the college a new $8.5 million building but do little for Ventura County students.

• The Ventura County Republican Central Committee accepted a $50,000 donation from Altria, parent company of tobacco giant Philip Morris, on behalf of Strickland’s State Senate campaign. Strickland’s past votes have favored tobacco companies.

• Strickland’s campaign is heavily financed by outside influences including insurance, oil, alcohol, tobacco, gambling and banking. As an assembly member he consistently voted in favor of these interests and against bills to protect the health of our citizens and the environment and to regulate predatory lenders.

• Individual donations to Strickland’s campaign show something remarkable: 66 percent have come from individuals who live elsewhere in California or outside the state. In the case of his opponent, Hannah-Beth Jackson, 62 percent come from individuals who live in the Senate district.

• Assemblywoman Audra Strickland’s campaign contributions show a similar pattern of outside interests with almost no donors from inside the district

It is time for voters to reject this culture of lobbying and corporate greed, which pays politicians to do its bidding. The Ventura County Democratic Central Committee urges voters to cast their ballots for candidates Hannah-Beth Jackson for State Senate District 19, Fran Pavley for the 23rd Senate District, Ferial Masry for the 37th Assembly District, Carole Lutness for the 38th Assembly District, Marta Jorgensen for U.S. Congress and Mark Lisagor and Ramon Flores for the Ventura County Board of Education.

Joseph O’Neill, Chair, Ventura County Democratic Central Committee