Local Delegates Look to Cast Votes, Push Causes at Convention

Buttons and funny hats in hand, Ventura County’s delegates are getting geared up for the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, where they will mix and network with nearly 5,000 fellow delegates from across the nation.

Labor leaders and community activists, union presidents and campaign managers, the county’s seven delegates and one alternate are political veterans. Most have attended a national convention before, and a few have already shaken hands with Vice President Al Gore, the party’s presumptive nominee.

During the Aug 14-18 event, the delegates will attend committee meetings and vote on the party’s platform. They will also attend parties and social events, keeping watch for celebrities and famous politicians.

But according to Bob Mulholland, a California member of the Democratic National Committee, they really just have to do two things: “Vote for Gore on Wednesday, and clap when he speaks on Thursday.”

The local Gore delegates are Sharon Hillbrant, Evi Kritt, Hank Lacayo, Leo and Marilyn Valenzuela and Bill Gallaher, and the alternate is Larry Miller. The Bill Bradley delegate is Adele Rosenbluth.

They will join two local elected officials: Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks).

They became delegates by campaigning at caucuses in January. Based on results of the March primary, the top-ranked candidates were chosen to attend the convention.

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Sharon Hillbrant’s first political memory is from the seventh grade. For a homework assignment, she read a book on the working conditions for women in the early 20th century.

“I was totally appalled,” she said. “I thought, ‘This is injustice.’ And that was when my first activism fires got lit.”

Since then, Hillbrant, 64, has fought for women’s issues in Ventura County and throughout the state. She serves on the National Women’s Political Caucus of Ventura County, the Ventura County Commission for Women and the Planned Parenthood Action Committee.

And as a second-time delegate to the Democratic National Convention, Hillbrant will continue speaking out for women’s rights. She fervently believes in a woman’s right to have an abortion, equal opportunity and fair wages. She also plans to fight against school vouchers and for handgun licensing.

At the 1996 convention in Chicago, Hillbrant said, the balloons, confetti and crowds gave her a political high.

“I was kicking my heels up and acting like I was 30 years younger than I am,” she said.

Hillbrant’s parents are Republican. And until she persuaded him to change parties, so was her husband, Bill. Now he manages the Campaign 2000 headquarters of the county’s Democratic Central Committee, while she serves as first vice chairwoman of the committee. The Camarillo couple have two grown daughters.

Hillbrant worked for the defense giant Raytheon for 26 years before retiring. She is now a proofreader and assistant editor for a magazine publishing company.

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In 1998, Evi Kritt quit her job as a corporate lawyer to become a full-time political activist, and now she is about to attend her first national convention.

Kritt, 47, is Democratic committee chairwoman of the 37th Assembly District, and is involved with the National Women’s Political Caucus, Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women. She is a member of the county’s Democratic Central Committee and heads the Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley.

As president of the Conejo Valley club, Kritt, who lives in Westlake Village, started a voter registration program in the east county, and spends time at malls on weekends registering potential voters. Her next priority: getting those voters to the polls so Republicans don’t regain control of the White House.

“Republicans are so ultraconservative,” she said. “They are so out of touch with everyday working people.

“If I just complain about it, I’m no better than them. But if I get active and try to make a difference, that’s better.”

Kritt’s top issues are abortion, health care, gun control and education. Kritt said she may run for local office herself in a few years.

Before becoming an attorney, Kritt, who is married and has two sons, worked as a fashion designer. She was raised in Maryland and moved to Ventura County in 1984.

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Being a delegate is nothing new to Hank Lacayo, 68, chairman of the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee and president of El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, a Latino advocacy group.

The Newbury Park resident has attended every convention except one since 1952. And beginning with Harry Truman, he has met every Democratic president and candidate.

But it’s still thrilling every time. “It never gets old,” he said. “We all like to be there with the decision- and newsmakers.”

Just out of the Air Force in 1952, Lacayo began working at an aircraft plant and joined the United Auto Workers Union. Now, Lacayo’s name is synonymous with UAW--he has served in various local, regional and national positions for the union. Lacayo said he learned early that the “ballot box and the bread box are inseparably tied.”

In 1986 he moved to California to retire and relax. But one day he picked up a hammer to help Manny Lopez put together a campaign sign for Oxnard City Council. And the next thing he knew, he said, he was back in the thick of the political fog. In 1992 Lacayo was then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s deputy campaign manager in California.

This year Lacayo and his delegation are especially concerned about three issues: education, Social Security and Medicare. He is anxious to go to the convention, but even more anxious to “get it over with, so we can get back and do the real campaigning at the grass-roots level.”

Lacayo, who has four children, said he has seen many changes in the conventions, one of the biggest being the growth of caucuses. Everybody has a caucus, he said, including Native Americans, Latinos, blacks, women and gays.

“You wonder how they take care of business,” he said. “Nobody is listening to what is going on at the podium because there are all these caucuses going on.”

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Leo and Marilyn Valenzuela of Oxnard are both local union leaders. Leo Valenzuela, 55, worked in construction before getting involved with his local union nearly 30 years ago. Now he serves as business manager of Laborer’s International Union, Local 585.

Marilyn Valenzuela, 52, worked as a meat wrapper, and is now executive secretary and treasurer of the Tri-Counties Central Labor Council.

The two hope they will be able to push labor’s agenda to the forefront without being written off as a special interest.

“We are labor before we are Democrats,” she said. “We are the only voice for working men and women.”

Their top issues are health care, Social Security, worker safety and education.

“It’s sad that the richest country in the world can’t take care of our sick and educate our children,” Marilyn Valenzuela said.

She said she and her husband have almost a love/hate relationship with politics.

Some weeks they work 12 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week. “You put a stop to your life from Labor Day until Election Day,” she said.

Leo Valenzuela said he enjoys politics “when we win.” But he concedes he also enjoys going door-to-door telling people about the issues and why labor supports the candidates.

They both are eagerly anticipating the upcoming convention, but both know that the week’s events will wear them out.

“The crowds and the hoopla are exciting, but exhausting,” Marilyn Valenzuela said.

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Bill Gallaher, 52, an Oxnard firefighter, is known around the firehouse as “Mr. Democratic Party” and “Mr. Central Committee.”

He served as president of the Oxnard Firefighters Assn. for 14 years, and is now the union’s secretary/treasurer. And he serves as second vice chairman of the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee.

Gallaher attended his first convention in 1996, after being urged by the international union to run as a delegate.

“In some ways, it’s like a sporting event,” he said of the campaign. “You’re working for a specific team and you want that team to win.”

Gallaher, who has one grown daughter, said he enjoys meeting some of the big-name politicians, because “as a firefighter, it’s something I don’t usually see.” But Gallaher said he is really there to “do business” by networking with other firefighter and labor unions and lobbying elected officials.

The Ventura resident plans to fight for a collective bargaining bill for firefighters and to get more federal funding for cities so firefighters can be better prepared for disasters. Often, Gallaher said, firefighters are the first ones to show up after natural disasters, plane crashes or terrorist attacks.

“We’ve been kind of left in the shadows,” he said. “We’ve arrived at some of the situations marginally equipped.”

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Moorpark College biology professor Larry Miller traces his political roots to his grandfather, Ira Miller, who was a railroad worker and union member.

Now, Miller, 61, is one of the county’s best-known labor leaders for his involvement with the Ventura Community College District faculty union. In 1999, the Tri-Counties Central Labor Council named Miller co-labor leader of the year.

Miller began teaching at Moorpark College in 1971, and joined the California Federation of Teachers the next year. He served as chief negotiator for seven years and as president for four years. During his tenure as chief, college instructors waged a lengthy labor dispute, marked by picketing, rallies and a sickout. They didn’t strike, however, and eventually made concessions.

The Camarillo resident also serves as treasurer of the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee. And he regularly campaigns for local Democratic candidates by walking precincts and making phone calls.

During the convention, Miller plans to lobby for a living wage and more equitable health coverage. Miller said he is also looking forward to meeting some of the nation’s leaders.

Miller said he will have difficulty not joining the protesters. He calls himself a liberal Democrat, and says that “conservatives make him sick.”

“If I can get a microphone, I’m gonna pull this party to the left,” Miller said.

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In 1968, Adele Rosenbluth marched outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, protesting police action. Now, 32 years later, Rosenbluth will be inside the convention, helping choose the president and shape the platform of her party.

“It’s been a lifetime dream of mine since I got into politics,” said Rosenbluth, 67. “And this will probably be my last chance.”

Rosenbluth, who lives in Port Hueneme, works as a travel agent and travels often, but her passion is politics. While living in Ohio, she fought to lower the voting age. She marched against the Vietnam War. And she helped run campaigns for Democratic councilmen, congressmen and presidents.

When she and her husband, Murray Rosenbluth, moved to California in 1988, she decided to take a breather from politics. That is, until Murray decided to run for the Port Hueneme City Council in 1996. Now, Adele Rosenbluth is his chief of staff, and is running his reelection campaign for mayor.

She is also involved with the Ventura County Women’s Navy League and the Friends of the Port Hueneme Library. The Rosenbluths, who won the Citizens of the Year award in Port Hueneme in 1998, have three grown children.

Rosenbluth is officially a delegate for former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley. But when Bradley releases his delegates, Rosenbluth plans to cast her vote for Gore. She also plans to fight for those issues most important to her: creating universal health care, preserving Social Security, improving Medicare and equalizing public education.

“I’m not just going to sit there and listen to all those people drone on and give speeches,” she said. “I’m going to meet people and make contacts with the people on the policy and platform committee. I would like to be heard.”