Strickland Claims Assembly Win

After a tense week of waiting for absentee votes to be counted, Republican Tony Strickland claimed victory Monday in the 37th Assembly District race, pulling away from Democrat Roz McGrath by nearly 1,600 votes.

“I was nervous,” said Strickland, 28, a self-described “pure conservative” who bucked the Democratic tide statewide to save a traditional Republican seat for his beleaguered party. “But we got across the finish line.”

In the closest local race in years, Strickland led by only 346 out of 83,243 votes before absentee ballots were tallied. But after 16,000 late-arriving ballots were counted Monday, he padded that lead by another 1,229 votes.

The difference came in reliable Republican strongholds of Thousand Oaks, Camarillo and Moorpark.

About 2,500 more ballots from the 37th District are expected to be counted today, but McGrath, a 51-year-old kindergarten teacher, will be unable to make up the difference, according to election officials.

Reached before the absentee count came in, she would not comment on whether she plans to challenge Strickland again in two years, as party leaders have suggested.

“I’m not going to answer that question right now,” said McGrath, a teacher at Mesa School in Somis. “I’ve got report cards to grade.”

As McGrath resumed her teaching duties full-time, Strickland planned his legislative agenda.

A former aide to conservative Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge), Strickland said he will be able to work with the Democratic majority in the Assembly.

“I’ve already developed some friendships during orientation last week,” he said.

Among the first is Assemblywoman-elect Hannah-Beth Jackson, a Democrat just elected to represent west Ventura County.

“We really hit it off,” he said.

Strickland, a former college basketball star at Whittier College, and Jackson, a tennis standout as a teenager, talked sports, he said.

“We like each other, and that’s a step in the right direction,” Strickland said. “We can work together on issues. She mentioned Cal State Channel Islands. We can match up to follow through on supporting the new university.”

Jackson was vacationing and could not be reached for comment.

Strickland and McGrath had both sent monitors to watch the final ballots be counted. But after days of looking over the shoulders of election officials and challenging the validity of a few dozen ballots, the monitors walked away from the county elections office Monday, saying it was time to put the race behind them.

Nearly 600 absentee ballots were thrown out by elections chief Bruce Bradley. But very few were jettisoned because voters’ signatures on ballots and registration cards didn’t match--a problem alleged by the candidates, Bradley said.

“Both sides said it’s over, thanked us and left,” he said.

But for Strickland, who campaigned full time for nearly a year, the effort is just beginning.

“Now it’s time to work on reforming education, cutting taxes and keeping public safety a top priority,” he said.

Strickland has asked to join the Assembly Agriculture Committee. Whether he gets that assignment depends on the Democrats, who control the lower house.

Strickland said he feels like the survivor of a marathon. He began campaigning door to door after work and on weekends in late 1996, and quit his job with McClintock in December to walk precincts full time.

“That was the difference,” he said. “People like their grass-roots politics. They like their representatives to knock on their doors.”

By contrast, McGrath’s campaign didn’t kick into gear until October, when Democratic polling showed that she was in a virtual dead heat with the untried Strickland. The party poured $252,000 into her campaign in the final weeks.

By the time it was over, McGrath spent nearly $400,000 on the general election, while Strickland spent nearly as much. He also spent more than $200,000 in a hard-fought primary in which he knocked off an early favorite, Rich Sybert, the former planning director for Gov. Pete Wilson.

Republicans outnumber Democrats by 3,500 registered voters in the 37th District, and Republicans have held the seat for at least 30 years.

But Strickland said he had to overcome a remarkably low turnout by Republicans in this election.

Campaign consultant Joe Giardiello said Democrats in the 37th District--which includes Oxnard and Port Hueneme--voted at least as frequently as Republicans because the top Republicans on the state ticket ran such poor campaigns.

In Ventura County, Democratic Gov.-elect Gray Davis beat Republican rival Dan Lungren by nine percentage points.

* THOUSAND OAKS COUNCIL RACE: Dan Del Campo edges incumbent Judy Lazar, with some ballots uncounted. B5