HUNTINGTON BEACH : Democrat Hopes Her Year Is Here

Sally J. Alexander, 78, has spent nearly 60 years toiling in the political arena for the Democrats.

And though successes have been few and far between, her hopes are high that the drought will end in November.

A founding member and three-time president of the Democratic Club of west Orange County, she was a Clinton delegate to the Democratic National Convention in New York City.

Alexander has persevered in this Republican stronghold. It has not always been easy.

“It sometimes has been depressing, and it’s been challenging,” says Alexander. Sometimes I’ve been very angry. But now the tide is turning, and it’s inspirational to keep on working.”

Alexander says she she can hardly wait for the election, she is so sure that Bill Clinton is going to win.

“I’m on the edge of my seat,” she said. Alexander believes that economic and social conditions are playing into the hands of the Democrats. “People are hungry and a hell of a lot of workers out of work,” she says.

She believes that education, gun control, health and child care and a woman’s right to make reproductive decisions will be big campaign issues.

A mother of five with eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild, Alexander is predicting victory not only for party presidential nominee Clinton, but also for U.S. Senate candidates Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

Alexander is not as optimistic that the Democrats will carry Orange County in the November election. But she believes that her party will get enough votes here to win the Senate seats.

Alexander was introduced to national politics when she attended a rally for Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Los Angeles Coliseum about 1932.

She worked for George McGovern in New York. When McGovern lost to Richard M. Nixon, Alexander and her husband took part in an anti-Nixon inaugural parade in Washington.

Last week, she was still taking part in protests, driving to the office of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), to attack his policies on immigrants.

“I, too, wish conditions were better in Mexico,” she said. “But they are not. The people are refugees here, and they need help.”

The veteran politico was ousted as a member of the Orange County Democratic Central Committee in June when, she says, an anti-incumbent fever swept her off the ballot.

But, as always, she bounced back from the defeat.

Meanwhile, Alexander credits her active political involvement with helping her to stay young.

“It’s never entered my mind to be anything but a Democrat,” she said.