McGrath and Strickland Trade Jabs

Taking the fight to her Republican opponent, underdog Democrat Roz McGrath launched a personal attack against Tony Strickland on Wednesday as the 37th Assembly District candidates sparred face-to-face for the first time.

Ending an otherwise polite breakfast exchange before the Port Hueneme Chamber of Commerce, McGrath branded Strickland a pawn of conservative power brokers and a carpetbagger who moved to Thousand Oaks two years ago to run for office.

She said much the same thing during a second forum at Oxnard College.

Strickland, a 28-year-old former legislative aide, swung back, saying: His support is from 500 contributors, not a select few. He fights bureaucracies, he doesn’t build them. He has lived in Ventura County--albeit Simi Valley and out of the 37th District--since he was a child.

And after the noon session sponsored by the League of Women Voters, he said McGrath, a 51-year-old kindergarten teacher, will say anything her Democratic “handlers” tell her to say.

“I’m not the one asking Democratic power brokers for $500,000,” he said. “I’m the one who doesn’t need outside money coming in.”

Strickland had raised more than $400,000 by Oct. 1, including $81,000 in cash and loans from a conservative political action committee and $35,000 in loans from conservative Republican lawmakers.

McGrath had raised only $52,000, and said she needed perhaps $400,000 from the Democratic Party to make a race of it as candidates flood mailboxes with fliers before the Nov. 3 election. On Wednesday, McGrath campaign consultant Phil Giarrizzo said she has new commitments from labor and education groups of at least $50,000.

“I’ve been directly contacted with those commitments,” Giarrizzo said. “That’s from educators, firefighters and groups that represent working men and women. We’re going to be competitive.”

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But the really big Democratic money is still uncommitted. A spokesman for Assembly Democratic leaders said they will decide next week whether they think McGrath can win in a district with a Republican voting edge of 3,500 and a higher Republican propensity to vote.

A new Democratic poll over last weekend showed McGrath with a slight lead, said Darry Sragow, campaign manager for the Democratic caucus. A recent Republican poll showed Strickland with a seven-point lead.

Meanwhile, Strickland has maintained that his supporters--including conservative businessmen, attorneys and the National Rifle Assn.--have pledged to spend what it takes to win.

At Wednesday’s forums, spectators got a clear look at the differences between the moderate McGrath, the conservative Strickland and Reform Party candidate Michael Farris, 29, a scientist whose interest in politics blossomed with billionaire independent Ross Perot.

McGrath, a member of a pioneer farm family, was on the offense all day.

Afterward, she said she thought the day went her way.

Strickland consultant Joe Giardiello acknowledged that she was the aggressor.

“She had to be because she has to take out the perceived front-runner,” he said. “In a political sense, Tony was the winner, because she didn’t deliver a knockout blow.”

In her breakfast appearance, McGrath urged Port Hueneme business leaders to “elect someone who is not entrenched in party politics.”

“I’m not a carpetbagger,” she added. “I didn’t move here two years ago to run for this office. We need someone who has roots in this community.”

In the afternoon, she said she had more experience as a teacher, farmer and community activist than both of her young opponents put together.

Farris countered that, yes, he is young: “But sometimes experience means you’ve been sitting in the same box for 15 years and haven’t changed.”

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And Strickland said that while his experience is limited to work in state government and politics, he has developed precisely the skills he needs to be a good lawmaker.

“No one has more experience for the job we’re applying for than me,” he said. He vowed to follow in the footsteps of his mentor, conservative Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge).

Strickland also preached the virtues of small government, low taxes, crime fighting and improving education by holding educators’ feet to the fire.

Both he and Farris backed the use of taxpayer-funded vouchers to allow students to attend the school of their choice--while McGrath said that would undermine public education. And Strickland said teachers should be tested to determine their competency and paid accordingly.

“Why is this the only industry where we don’t measure by performance?” he said.

Farris, a Sherman Oaks scientist who has a PhD in space physics, offered himself as an alternative to the typical partisan feuding of Sacramento. He said he could reach out to both parties to make laws that make sense. He could buck party leaders.

“If you elect me, I’ll probably be my party’s leader,” he said, prompting a laugh.

Topping his legislative agenda, Farris said, would be campaign reform, education reform and saving the state’s farmlands and open spaces.

In a remark aimed at Camarillo farm owner McGrath, Farris said he is the only candidate who favors the SOAR ballot measures designed to preserve Ventura County’s semirural ambience.

McGrath insisted that farmland preservation is also a top priority for her. But she said she opposes the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiatives because “SOAR is not the best way of preserving farmland.”

Her own family runs a farm adjacent to the Ventura Freeway, and half that land would be protected by SOAR, denying development where it makes most sense.

“Freeway farming is not fun,” she said. “We have graffiti, we have theft. We even found a crime victim six years ago.”

The candidates also divided on hot-button issues such as abortion and gun control.

Farris said he favored enforcing current gun-control laws, but would vote for no new ones because they are “feel-good legislation.”

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Strickland said he wanted to punish criminals, not gun owners. McGrath favored the banning of small-caliber handguns. “There are too many guns out there, and children are killing each other,” she said. “I’m not afraid of the NRA.”

On abortion, McGrath said that “unlike my opponents, I’m 100% pro-choice.” Farris said he is also pro-choice but doesn’t think government should pay for abortions.

“I’m the only candidate who is pro-life,” Strickland said, insisting abortion should be allowed only in case of rape or incest or when a pregnant woman’s life is threatened.

After the final debate, McGrath wrote a letter to Strickland, saying that he had changed his position on abortion. Strickland told two anti-abortion groups on surveys that he favored abortion only when a woman’s life was in danger, McGrath wrote.

“It seems that either you have changed your position or you change your position based on the audience you are appealing to,” McGrath wrote.

Strickland could not be reached for comment. Previously he said that he has been consistent on abortion, but that the McGrath camp was distorting it.

“If she’s a single-issue candidate, that’s fine,” said Strickland consultant Giardiello. “But it’s not an argument we’re going to get involved in. We’re going to talk about issues people care about--education, crime and taxes.”