COUNTYWIDE : Gallegly Changes Ballot Designation

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), running for reelection in a new congressional district that includes most of Ventura County, has changed his ballot designation from “Congressman” to “U. S. Representative,” a secretary of state’s spokeswoman said Monday.

Gallegly said that he had intended to make the change during his successful primary campaign, but that the secretary of state’s office mistakenly retained his “Congressman” title.

But the campaign manager for Anita Perez Ferguson of Oxnard, Gallegly’s Democratic opponent in the general election, said the lawmaker was reacting to the fact that many female candidates are doing well this election year.

“It’s obvious he’s looking at the polling and realizes that voters want to vote out their congressman,” said Perez Ferguson campaign manager Sam Rodriguez. “Who knows, the next thing he may do is change his first name.”

Perez Ferguson’s ballot title is “educator/small businesswoman.”

Gallegly said the change in his ballot title had nothing to do with the fact that “Congressman” refers to gender.

“Two-thirds, or three-quarters, of my staff has always been female,” Gallegly said when asked to respond to Rodriguez’s comments. “My management has always been female. In my 20 years when I owned a small business, I never had a male as a manager of my company.”

Indeed, he said, the change was motivated by calls from people “who have questions” about whether he is a U. S. representative or a congressman.

Technically, the title “congressman,” or “congresswoman,” is used to describe a member of either the House of Representatives or the U. S. Senate. But over the years, the title “congressman” has evolved to describe a member of the House.

Melissa Warren, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State March Fong Eu, said Gallegly’s ballot title was changed Aug. 3, and that he had until Aug. 27 to do so, the deadline when candidates are certified for the ballot.

To demonstrate that it was not a last-minute decision, Gallegly produced a May 5 letter from Eu apologizing “for the error of my staff in failing to change your occupational ballot designation as requested.”

Separately, Perez Ferguson called upon Gallegly to join her in four debates in September and October “on the issues of the economy, education, health care reform and foreign policy.”

She also urged Gallegly to agree “to a campaign spending cap” for both candidates of $425,000. As of June 30, Gallegly had a campaign cash balance of $315,353 compared with $56,763 for Perez Ferguson.

Gallegly said he and his staff would make such campaign decisions after Labor Day.