50 Camarillo Voters Form City’s 1st Democratic Club

A group of Camarillo voters who stumped for Democratic candidates in the 1992 elections has banded together to form the first chartered Democratic Club in the Republican-dominated city.

The club, which has about 50 members, will give local Democrats a base for campaigning for candidates in future state and national elections, members said.

It will also offer a haven for local Democrats who may feel isolated from other Democrats, said Debra Creadick, 40, a club board member.

“It’s very empowering,” she said. “It makes you feel you can talk about your politics and you’ll have people supporting it.”

Of Camarillo’s 31,676 registered voters, 11,400 or 36% are Democrat, 15,983 or 50.5% are Republican, and the rest are registered as independent or members of other parties, according to the county registrar of voters’ office.

Local Democrats may not be aware their numbers are as large as they are, because the city lies in an area that typically elects Republicans to state and national seats, said club president Paul Awrey.

Awrey served as campaign manager for Roz McGrath in her failed bid against Republican Nao Takasugi for the 37th Assembly District seat last fall.

“It’s an area that is identified with Republicans,” Awrey said. “It’s a conservative community.”

A Democratic Club sprang up in the city in the 1980s but died out around 1990 because of lack of interest, Awrey said.

Camarillo has two Republican women’s clubs but no organizations open to men, said David Irwin, a resident who is an alternate delegate on the county’s Republican Central Committee.

The new Democratic group, the first in Camarillo to be chartered by the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee, will hold monthly meetings and occasional fund-raisers.

Its first meeting will be Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Round Table Pizza, 880 Arneill Road. Hank Starr, chairman of the county’s Democratic Central Committee, will speak.