Parties to History : Inaugural Festivities Draw Some Area Residents to Washington to Savor the Excitement, Maybe Find a Job

Moorpark City Councilman Bernardo Perez calls it “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to participate in history as it happens.

Anita Perez Ferguson, an Oxnard educational consultant and former congressional candidate, sees it as a chance to pursue an appointment to the Clinton Administration at its inception.

And Shoshana Brower, a Westlake Village Democratic and feminist activist, views it as a rare invitation to rub shoulders “with people who affect our lives all the time.”

Perez, Brower and Perez Ferguson will be among various party loyalists and others from Ventura County who are flocking to the nation’s capital for this week’s inauguration and related festivities. They’ve decided that it’s worth braving body-crushing crowds and possibly bone-chilling temperatures and digging deep into their pockets for a place at the inaugural epicenter.

Bill Clinton is, after all, the first Democrat to ascend to the presidency in 16 years and, although these activists are optimistic, they don’t want to be presumptuous about the future.

“I expect it to be cold and frantic and have a level of excitement that will make all of that not so important,” said Brower, who is sharing a hotel suite with three other Democratic women from the Conejo Valley. “I wasn’t going to pass that up.”

Among others who will be on hand are Oxnard Mayor Manny Lopez, who arrived in the capital Friday; labor official Marilyn Woolard of the United Food and Commercial Workers, and Westlake Village physician Irv Loh and his wife, Trudy, an attorney, who were involved in Democratic campaigns last fall.

In addition, actress Mary Steenburgen of Ojai is one of many celebrities who will attend the festivities. The Arkansas native is close to Clinton and his wife, Hillary; was a delegate to the Democratic Convention, and campaigned extensively for her friends last year.

Despite the crush for tickets to the inaugural and other events elsewhere, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) said there were fewer requests to his office than four years ago when Republican George Bush was inaugurated. He estimated that his office fielded four times more requests for the 1989 festivities.

Each congressional office, Republican as well as Democratic, received 19 seats to the swearing-in and 177 standing tickets. They were also issued small numbers of invitations to buy tickets to other events.

Most California Democratic offices reported that demand far outstripped supply. Gallegly, however, said that he dispensed inaugural tickets to colleagues from the other party--including Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills)--and staffers, and still had some left over Friday. He said there were 33 constituent requests for one or more tickets.

Ferguson, who ran against Gallegly in November, already spent a month in Washington as part of a transition “cluster group” working on refugee resettlement, American Indian and children’s issues at the Department of Health and Human Services. She is seeking a post at the level of assistant secretary in the Labor Department’s international bureau, Health and Human Services’ refugee resettlement program or the Department of Education.

While she is here, Ferguson will meet with a national coalition of Latino women that is pressing the incoming Administration about jobs, and with a group of national Hispanic leaders. She said she would be delighted to join an Administration that has “great things coming.”

Brower, who coordinated Beilenson’s campaign in the Conejo Valley, is also active in the National Women’s Political Caucus and the American Assn. of University Women. She is particularly excited about participating this week in events highlighting the gains by Democratic women in the past election.

“I’m hoping that it’s going to feel like one of those rare moments in history,” she said.

Gallegly, meanwhile, was left to ponder what it will be like to see the Democrats invade this august capital city to celebrate and inaugurate and make it their own.

“When you’re a little kid growing up, it’s always more fun when it’s your birthday, not little Johnny’s,” Gallegly said, a bit wistfully.