Masry, Strickland in a Rematch

Oct. 21, 2006

The women will again run against each other for an Assembly seat
By Timm Herdt, Timm Herdt

Two years ago, Democratic Assembly candidate Ferial Masry of Newbury Park was the toast of the international media. A Saudi Arabian immigrant, she was doing in America what no woman in her native land could dream of: running for political office, speaking her mind, singing the praises of democracy.

ABC News featured her as its "person of the week." Arab-language television network Al-Jazeera lined up an interview.

Then the people of Ventura County's 37th Assembly District voted. In an overwhelmingly Republican district, they overwhelmingly elected the Republican, Audra Strickland.

"I didn't lose," asserts Masry, who decided the morning after the 2004 election that she would run again. "I won the process; I just lost the seat. The most important thing for me is that a woman who came from Saudi Arabia where she had no rights can run for office here. That's the greatest thing."

Now a rematch is just around the corner.

This time, Strickland, 32, presents an even a more formidable challenge. She's had two years in office to establish a name and reputation distinct from that of her husband, Tony, who had held the office for six years before being forced by term limits to step aside.

She has become a mother — her daughter just celebrated her first birthday — and, Strickland says, she has demonstrated that she will represent the views of district voters in Sacramento and work on their behalf. She cites specifically a bill she shepherded through the Legislature that enacted new regulations for dealing with exotic animals, an effort she took on in direct response to the celebrated incident in which an escaped tiger briefly roamed Moorpark neighborhoods.

"It's not the most significant bill that passed the Legislature last term," she said. "But when we had that incident in Moorpark, I brought people together right away to work on comprehensive legislation to address the issue."

Despite the fact that she's now running against an incumbent, Masry, 57, believes she is in many ways better positioned now than she was two years ago.

In 2005, at the invitation of the State Department, she traveled to Saudi Arabia to speak about her participation in the democratic process. After she returned, Masry shared her experience with more than a dozen service clubs in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark and the rest of the district, which also includes Camarillo, Ojai, Santa Paula and Fillmore.

"I talked about my story, not as a candidate," she said. "I was talking about democracy and our vote and how we cannot have apathy."

As a result of those speaking engagements, Masry said, she believes some Republican voters who may have seen her in a partisan light two years ago will now be more open to her candidacy.

"We want to end this polarization," she said.

On the issues, Masry calls herself a "moderate" Democrat; Strickland describes herself as a "conservative" Republican.

Masry notes that, although Strickland seeks to portray herself as a partner of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, she voted against all his high-profile actions this year: against all the infrastructure bonds for which he was campaigning, against the minimum-wage increase he signed, against the global-warming bill he signed and against the budget he negotiated.

"On the issues, she's against him," Masry said. "But if he's up in the polls, she'll claim she supports him."

Strickland said that while she does not agree with Schwarzenegger "100 percent of the time," she believes overall he "has done an awesome job in putting us back on the right track."

The issue Strickland most stresses is her commitment to adopt state policies to deny benefits to illegal immigrants. She opposes state laws that allow teenagers who graduated from California high schools but are in the country illegally to qualify for in-state college tuition and, if eligible by virtue of low family income, for college financial aid.

Masry supports allowing California high school graduates to pay in-state tuition even if they are not legal residents.

"Are we going to have a work force that is not productive and not going to pay its share of taxes?" she asks. "They can become part of the productive labor force, or we could send a lot of them to prison and pay $32,000 a year to keep them there."

Strickland says Masry's views on the issue do not reflect those of the majority of people in the district.

"As with any candidate running for office, people need to ask whether that person believes what they believe."

The two will have a chance to discuss that and other issues on Tuesday, when they meet at Moorpark College at noon in a debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters.

At the end of the Sept. 30 reporting period, Strickland had $145,000 in her campaign account. Masry had a balance of $103,000.

Strickland has been helped in recent days by a number of late contributions from Indian gaming tribes. In addition, a coalition of gaming tribes reported this week independent expenditures on her behalf of $22,000 — with the likelihood of more to come. Most of the money reported was for television production, which is often a precursor to buying time on television to air commercials.

Masry asserts that Strickland's support from gambling interests indicates she does not share the values of local residents.

Asked about the tribal money behind her campaign, Strickland said, "I'm just pleased there are people out there helping me."

Copyright 2006, Ventura County Star. All Rights Reserved.