9 Prepare for Roles as Democratic Convention Delegates

Actress and political activist Mary Steenburgen, who lives in northern Ventura County, is a longtime friend of Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary. She traveled with them and stumped for them during the just-completed presidential primary campaign and will be a Clinton delegate at the Democratic convention.

In contrast, Thousand Oaks resident Elisa Charouhas played key roles in the campaign of former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., Clinton’s last remaining primary opponent. Charouhas, a Brown delegate, has refused to endorse Clinton and predicts he will be a loser in November.

Steenburgen and Charouhas represent opposite ends of the spectrum in the nine-person Ventura County delegation that will attend next month’s Democratic convention at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The county’s delegation of seven women and two men includes party, labor, environmental and feminist activists. The Democrats will convene July 13 to 16.

Four members of the Ventura County contingent are pledged to Clinton, who won the California Democratic primary, and five are committed to Brown. One of Clinton’s representatives is an alternate who will attend the convention but will vote only if a delegate cannot do so.

Clinton carried the two Ventura County-based congressional districts in California’s June 2 primary. Brown, however, has more delegates from the region because he chose two delegates from the county to fill slots reserved for at-large delegates from anywhere in the state. Candidates receive a portion of such delegates based on their statewide vote.

In addition, one of the Brown delegates from the 24th Congressional District, which takes in most of Thousand Oaks and the San Fernando Valley, is from Thousand Oaks. These districts were drawn based on population changes documented in the 1990 census.

Clinton won the 23rd Congressional District, which incorporates Carpinteria and the rest of Ventura County, with 20,448 votes, or 46%. Brown gained 17,669 votes, or 40%. Clinton took the 24th Congressional District, with 35,719 votes, or 50%, to Brown’s 26,057, or 37.5%.

As a result, Clinton gained five “caucus” delegates apportioned by district and two alternates; Brown also won five delegates. Clinton’s three delegates from the 24th District and two of Brown’s reside in the San Fernando Valley portion of the district.

For several of the Ventura representatives, this will be their first convention as delegates, although they have attended previous such gatherings as volunteers or observers.

“It could be real boring or it could be exciting,” said Donald Cannon, a longtime Democratic and feminist activist who is a Clinton delegate from Ventura. “It depends on how bold he is--whether he’s going to go along with the kind of traditional advice or whether he’s going to do something else.

“The choice of the vice president is going to be real important this year, especially with (undeclared independent candidate Ross) Perot in the race. I think a business-as-usual kind of choice isn’t going to get him anywhere . . . putting a boring white guy in there.”

Steenburgen, 39, who has starred in such movies as “Parenthood,” “Back to the Future III” and “Ragtime,” will be among the more celebrated Clinton delegates. She won an Academy Award as best supporting actress for her performance in “Melvin and Howard” in 1980.

The soft-spoken actress grew up in North Little Rock, Ark., where her mother and sister still live. A friend of the Clintons since 1978, she traveled with them in Illinois, returned to Arkansas for a campaign event, went to Sacramento on the candidate’s behalf and hosted rallies for him in Los Angeles.

She has long been active with the politically influential Hollywood Women’s Political Committee and on such issues as AIDS, family planning, human rights and South Africa.

“I’m really excited,” Steenburgen said of the prospect of attending her first convention. “It’s a somewhat mysterious process to me. You have these images of loads of people making lots of noise and wearing funny hats, but most of us don’t understand the inner workings.

“I’m also excited because this is a person I’ve known for a long time and believe in. . . . It’s nice to be part of this moment in his history.”

The other Clinton delegate is Julia Carrasco-Mitnick of Ventura, a member of the county Democratic Central Committee and a political aide to state Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara). Leone Webster, an Ojai environmental activist, is the Clinton alternate.

In addition to the at-large delegates, candidates get to appoint a number of party leaders and elected officials statewide, again based on the percentage of the vote received. Carrasco-Mitnick was such a Clinton appointee.

Brown’s delegation includes Jane Tolmach, who was mayor of Oxnard from 1973 to 1974; Barry Hammitt of Ventura, executive director of Service Employees International Union Local 998, the Public Employees Assn. of Ventura, and Donna Schoenkopf, a teacher and Democratic and anti-war activist from Thousand Oaks.

In addition, Charouhas and Joyce Thompson of Moorpark, a Brown volunteer, were selected as at-large delegates.

Charouhas, 39, a writer who also worked in Brown’s 1980 presidential and 1982 Senate campaigns, began serving in the current effort as coordinator of constituency groups nationally and ended up as the chief scheduler. She will be attending her first convention.

Charouhas remains adamantly anti-Clinton. She said she still holds out hope that he will not be the party’s nominee--even though she acknowledged that he has won more than enough delegates to put him over the top on the first ballot.

“If the Democrats want to win in November, Bill Clinton should not be the nominee,” Charouhas said. “He’s really operating under the same (insider) big boys as George Bush is. I don’t see there is any difference at all. It’s all rhetoric.”

If Brown stages some kind of walkout or other protest of the platform or convention tactics, Charouhas said she will join him. And she predicted that most of the other Brown delegates from Ventura County would do so as well.

Otherwise, she said, she would reluctantly back Clinton over Bush and Perot.

But she cautioned against trying “to predict what Jerry Brown is going to do from one moment to the next. He doesn’t know. He sort of flies by the seat of the pants.”

THE DELEGATES

Barry Hammitt: Union official / Brown delegate

Elisa Charouhas: Writer, activist / Brown delegate

Leone Webster: Environmental activist / * Clinton alternate

Julia Carrasco-Mitnick: Legislative aide / Clinton delegate

Mary Steenburgen: Actress, activist / Clinton delegate

Joyce Thompson: Brown volunteer / Brown delegate

Donna Schoenkopf: Teacher / Brown delegate

Donald Cannon, a feminist activist and Clinton delegate, and Jane Tolmach, former mayor of Oxnard and Brown delegate, are not pictured.