ELECTIONS / VOTER REGISTRATION : GOP Lead Reduced by More Than Half

Democrats in Ventura County have registered more than 13,000 voters since the last presidential election, cutting the Republicans’ commanding lead in voter registration by more than half, according to final registration figures released Saturday.

An aggressive Democratic voter registration drive also paid off in the hot race for a House seat in the 23rd Congressional District, covering most of Ventura County, where Democrats now outnumber Republicans by more than 4,000 registered voters, the figures showed.

The Ventura County clerk’s office said the county has 359,236 registered voters eligible to vote in the Nov. 3 presidential election, a gain of 9% over the level of the last presidential election four years ago.

Overall, Republicans number 157,631, or 43.9% of registered voters, while Democrats total 147,680, or 41.1%, according to the registrar’s office. That narrowed the Republicans’ advantage from about 21,000 voters in 1988 to fewer than 10,000 voters today.

“The Democrats are the only ones who had a sustained registration effort,” said Bruce Bradley, Ventura County assistant registrar of voters. “I don’t know of any real effort by the Republicans.”

Although the deadline for registering to vote in the Nov. 3 election was Oct. 5, a last-minute deluge of registration forms swamped the registrar’s office and prevented election officials from issuing final figures until Saturday, Bradley said.

Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria) and his campaign organization played a big role in the Democratic increase both in Ventura County and in the 23rd Congressional District. O’Connell received funding help from the state Democratic Party to register voters in his 35th Assembly District, which covers portions of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Nels Henderson, chairman of Ventura County’s Democratic Central Committee, was elated by the new figures.

“Ventura County is well on its way to having a Democratic majority for the first time in about two decades,” he said. “This is an obvious indication that George Bush’s policies are bankrupt and that Elton Gallegly better start looking over his shoulder.”

Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) is running against Democratic challenger Anita Perez Ferguson of Oxnard in the 23rd Congressional District, which lost the Republican stronghold of Thousand Oaks in redistricting earlier this year. The redrawn district now encompasses Carpinteria and all of Ventura County except most of Thousand Oaks.

Bob Larkin, a member of the Ventura County Republican Central Committee, attributed the Democratic surge in registered voters to disarray this year in the county’s Republican Central Committee, and to the fact that Republicans got off to a late start in their registration efforts.

The central committee has reorganized and is much stronger now, he said.

“Two years from now, you’ll see those numbers reversed,” Larkin said. “The new committee is very experienced and very knowledgeable and we’ll start to register voters next Jan. 1.

“We’ll blow the Democrats away in two years.”

Separately, a major effort by Latino activists to register Latino voters in Oxnard and other heavily Latino communities did not appear as successful as had been hoped. Oxnard, for example, showed the lowest gain in registered voters between the June primary and the Oct. 5 registration deadline.

This year’s number of registered voters represents 81% of the county’s residents who are 18 and eligible to register, Bradley said. Four years ago, 83% of those eligible to register did so.

Election officials also anticipate another record number of absentee ballots in the upcoming election.

As of Saturday, about 36,000 applications for ballots had been received by the registrar, Bradley said. And he expected as many as 55,000 such ballots to be sent by mail or delivered to polling places--a sharp increase above the 36,769 absentee ballots cast by Ventura County voters four years ago.

In the 23rd Congressional District, the Democratic registration drive made its most dramatic shift, tilting registration figures to the Democrats in a county that has not had a Democratic congressional representative since World War II.

Final voter registration figures show there are 294,987 registered voters in the congressional district. Democrats number 127,986, or 43.4%, and Republicans 123,004, or 41.7%, according to registrar’s figures in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Yet, Democrats often need a far larger registration edge to have a true advantage because Republicans have a history of turning out to vote in higher numbers.

Democrats hold a bigger edge in the 35th Assembly District, where Assemblyman O’Connell is being challenged by Republican Lanny Ebenstein of Santa Barbara. The district covers parts of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, including the cities of Ventura, Santa Paula and the Ojai Valley.

Of the 231,594 voters in this district, Democrats number 106,083, or 45.8%, and Republicans 86,473, or 37.3%.

Republicans maintained their control in the 37th Assembly District, which includes Camarillo, Moorpark, Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Thousand Oaks. The race is between Oxnard Mayor Nao Takasugi, the Republican, and Democrat Roz McGrath.

The number of registered voters in the district totals 185,425. Republicans number 82,125, or 44.3%, and Democrats 75,043, or 40.4%.

Final registration figures for the 19th state Senate District are incomplete because part of the district stretches into the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles County registration data is not yet available. The district encompasses most of Ventura County’s heavily populated areas.

The race is between Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) and Democratic challenger Hank Starr of Bell Canyon. In the Ventura County portion of this district, there are 266,268 registered voters, of which 122,463 are Republicans and 103,283 Democrats.

Since June, voters registered as independents increased 8%, from 32,109 to 38,986--a sign that independent presidential candidate Ross Perot might have attracted some new voters or pulled from the ranks of established parties.

But Bradley discounted notions that the 12% countywide jump in overall registration over the past few months was the legacy of a registration drive by Perot supporters.

“The Perot people took out a lot of registration affidavits at first,” Bradley said. “Then Perot dropped out. When he dropped out, it just took the heart out of their registration effort.”

Simi Valley led Ventura County’s 10 cities in the increase of registered voters between the June primary and the registration deadline, with a 15.1% rise in registered voters. The surge in Simi Valley was followed by Moorpark, with a 13.9% jump; Thousand Oaks, 13.1%; Ojai, 12.8%; Port Hueneme, 12.3%; Santa Paula, 12.1%; Ventura, 11.7%; Camarillo, 8.8%, and Oxnard and Fillmore, 8.6%.

Narrowing the Gap

Ventura County registered voters in presidential elections

1988 1992 Party Voters Pct. Voters Pct. Republicans 155,647 47.4% 157,631 43.9% Democrats 134,522 40.9% 147,680 41.1% GOP Edge 21,125 6.5% 9,951 2.8%

Source: Ventura County Registrar of Voters