Labor Day Rite Marks Kickoff for Democrats : Politics: Party members hope they will win in a county where Republicans outnumber them by 20,000 voters.

With the usual fare of barbecued beef, corn on the cob, Dixieland music, American flags and campaign speeches, Ventura County’s Democratic Party and organized labor renewed their longstanding ties at a Labor Day campaign kickoff.

As in every election year, almost every Democratic candidate in the county took advantage of the Democrats United barbecue to launch campaigns, sign up volunteers and drum up support for the party’s nominee in the governor’s race--in this case, Dianne Feinstein.

More than 250 union workers, party activists and their families attended the upbeat gathering at Oxnard College Park, many of them wearing T-shirts and buttons with the names of their unions or their favorite candidates.

Keynote speakers Kathleen Brown, Democratic nominee for state treasurer, and John F. Henning, executive secretary of the California Labor Federation, set the tone for the dozen or so speeches heard throughout the afternoon.

The politicians made campaign promises, predicted victory and criticized their opponents, while supporting such traditional Democratic themes as helping the poor and disadvantaged, beefing up the education budget and protecting abortion rights.

The union leaders talked of the importance of their alliance with the Democrats and of the need to regain lost ground after a decade of antilabor Republican administrations at both the state and federal level.

And the party faithful once again expressed hope that this will be the year they win in a county where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by 20,000.

“I think people are in the mood to give a woman a chance,” said Kathleen Harthow, a self-described “longtime party hat,” as she finished her lunch. “It’s going to start at the top of the ticket and go all the way down.”

In addition to Feinstein and Brown, local candidates Anita Perez-Ferguson and Ginny Connell are running for offices currently held by Republican men. Perez-Ferguson is challenging Robert J. Lagomarsino for the 19th District congressional seat, and Connell is trying to unseat Tom McClintock in the 36th District Assembly race.

In both races, the districts include large portions of Ventura County and the challengers are considered underdogs.

Both Connell and Perez-Ferguson were cheered on by the enthusiastic crowd, but the loudest applause of the afternoon went to the two Democratic state officeholders, Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) and Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria).

O’Connell delighted the audience by referring to outgoing Gov. George Deukmejian as “the lame Duke,” “governor Dukenothing” and “governor DukeReagan,” while criticizing him for a lack of leadership and excessive conservatism.

And the crowd exploded in applause when Ventura Deputy Mayor Donald Villeneuve introduced Hart as “No. 1 on integrity at a time when confidence in elected legislators is at an all-time low.”

As the band played and elected officials from Ventura, Oxnard and Port Hueneme made their rounds through the picnic tables, smiling and shaking constituents’ hands, Victor Palafox, 59, scribbled notes in Spanish on a piece of paper in preparation for his own speech.

Palafox, the United Farm Workers of America’s Ventura County director, had become a U.S. citizen less than a year ago, he would later tell the audience through an interpreter.

“We, the people from below, support the Democrats because they help us,” he told the crowd, about half of whom were Latinos. “Starting next week, I will be out in the fields registering voters and campaigning for our candidates.”

“ Arriba the Democrats!” he cried in Spanish. “This year we have to win!”