Teachers Square Off in Assembly Race

Since Ferial Amin Masry qualified as an Assembly write-in candidate in the March primary, reporters from across the nation have documented her efforts to become the first native-born Saudi elected to public office in the U.S.

ABC-TV anchor Peter Jennings profiled her as the “Person of the Week,” “a candidate running for all the right reasons,” as she attended the Democratic National Convention in July.

But that doesn’t mean Masry has a realistic chance of knocking off Republican Audra Strickland for a seat the GOP has held in the conservative stronghold of Thousand Oaks for more than three decades.

Despite a compelling biography, Masry, 55, has received little financial support from the Democratic Party as she has tried to establish herself as a viable alternative to Strickland, 30, whose husband has represented the 37th Assembly District in Sacramento for six years but is leaving because of term limits.

“Ferial is a very intriguing candidate; she’s getting a tremendous amount of national coverage,” said Darry Sragow, a consultant who oversaw Assembly Democratic campaigns for eight years. “But that is a very, very tough district to win.”

Republicans hold a 12-point lead in voter registration in the district, which includes Ojai, Santa Paula and Fillmore and eastern Ventura County and Chatsworth, Canoga Park and Castaic in Los Angeles County.

Then there’s the issue of money. Strickland spent $550,000 to win a bitter Republican primary, and has raised about $200,000 since then -- $100,000 to pay off debt and $100,000 for the general election, according to her campaign. That compares with about $50,000 Masry said she has received.

“Audra’s out-raising some of the current [Assembly] members, and we’ve got some big events coming up,” said Joel Angeles, director of the Strickland campaign, before a $1,000-a-plate dinner with about 50 lobbyists in Sacramento last week. “We’ll be fine, but I think it’s a tall task for our opponent.”

Strickland, who like Masry is a government and history teacher, said she appreciates the background of the Saudi-born, Egypt-educated immigrant who lived in Nigeria and England but moved to the U.S. in 1979 for greater freedom as a woman and for her children. “She has a very interesting story to tell,” Strickland said.

“But I don’t think the voters of our district could have a clearer choice.”

At the campaign’s first forum last week, before 200 retirees at Leisure Village in Camarillo, the candidates confirmed that analysis: On nearly every issue, Strickland was the conservative Republican and Masry the liberal Democrat.

Strickland, polished in her presentation, delivered her points unemotionally, but sometimes dodged a direct question; Masry, halting in her speech, was pointed and detailed in her responses and sometimes scathing about what she saw as illogical government policy.

The crowd seemed to prefer Masry, warming to her with cheers and hoots to such a degree that the moderator declared herself embarrassed by their partisanship.

On a volatile issue, Strickland said she favored the federal government’s ban on drugs from Canada as a matter of consumer safety. Masry responded: “Canada is not a Third World country. We should really demand better treatment here.”

What did the candidates think of gay marriage, one person wanted to know.

Opposed, Strickland criticized San Francisco officials for temporarily granting the licenses earlier this year. Masry favored same-sex civil unions “as long as we give the same equality, like a married couple.”

Masry, a public school teacher in the San Fernando Valley, said granting taxpayer-funded vouchers to pay for private school educations was “a Band-Aid.... You’ll leave public schools for the kids who are not desired by private schools.”

Strickland, a private teacher in Ventura, said she strongly supports the public school system. But she did not say whether she backs vouchers in concept, as husband Tony did in 2002, when a voucher initiative was soundly rejected by California voters for a second time. “[It] is very likely a dead issue,” she said.

Strickland said she was “very opposed” to illegal immigrants, who are given “benefit after benefit after privilege ... drivers’ licenses and free college tuition” by a Democrat-controlled Legislature. Masry found hypocrisy in Republicans’ refusal to recognize illegal immigrants as an essential part of the U.S. economy. “The same people that are against illegal immigrants are the same people that employ them.”

Strickland was for the death penalty; Masry generally not. Strickland was opposed to use of marijuana for medical purposes; Masry was not. Strickland was opposed to use of embryonic stem cells for scientific research; Masry was not. Strickland was “pro-life”; Masry “pro-choice.”

In closing, Strickland said she would work closely with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who endorses her, to solve the state’s financial problems and to rebuild schools, power plants, water systems and roads. “From my first day on the job,” she said, she would help “end job-killer legislation,” evoking phrases used by her husband when he first ran for office and in his battles with former Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat.

Masry told the audience it only makes “common sense” to vote for her because of her broad experience as a mother, teacher, educator and immigrant. “I can be inclusive,” she said. “Government is trying to interfere in people’s bedrooms, and that’s scary. That’s what happens in a banana republic.”

Strickland said she was pleased with her performance. “I was reaching out for those who were undecided.” And she was certain the Leisure Village audience did not represent her district overall.

“I agree with the overwhelming majority of people in my community on the issues,” Strickland maintained. “This race is about shared values, and about experience, being able to do the job in Sacramento from Day 1.”

Strickland cites experience as an aide to three Assembly members as a young adult. She met her husband at a Republican convention and married him at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in 1997. She also is conservative on social and fiscal issues, she said.

But she is sensitive to charges that she is piggybacking on her husband’s success. “We share many ideas,” she said. “But we have different backgrounds and experience. I was a member of the Ventura County Board of Education and I’m a junior high school teacher.”

On campaign materials, Strickland prominently cites five months in 2002 as an appointed education board member. One brochure is headlined: “A Proven Tax Fighter,” an assertion based on her opposition to a $13-billion state school construction bond.

That position is consistent with her current support of school construction, she said, because she wants schools built using money in the state budget, not financed over decades with bonds.

Masry said she was so angry after finally meeting Strickland on Monday that she had trouble sleeping.

“She’s really a very limited person, an extremist,” Masry said. “She has no idea about living in a real world.... And it’s just ridiculous to have this dynasty, this guy putting his wife in office. This is like a Third World democracy.”

Strickland declined to respond.

Masry’s comments are in character for a person who has never shied away from expressing her opinions. While her son, Omar, was in Baghdad for 18 months, helping as a U.S. Army sergeant to rebuild schools, she opposed the Iraq war.

The U.S. “changed the whole dynamic of the region ... and opened the gate for all this [religious extremism]. It’s getting worse, and moderate people are feeling hopeless.”

Masry feels just the opposite about the race, saying she was thrilled just to be on the ballot after a longshot write-in campaign.

“Now I’m depending on the Republicans to see beyond the party and vote for the person,” she said.