State assembly candidate receives 30% of vote

By David Wilson

Tuesday night Marie Dominguez-Gasson learned that she had lost her six-month campaign race for California State Assembly. But by 12:01 a.m. Wednesday morning, she was celebrating something else -- her 21st birthday .

The group of nearly 20 people assembled at San Jose restaurant The Tied House cheered at several points during the evening when it appeared that the Santa Clara student was capturing upwards of 30 percent of the vote.

Dominguez-Gasson was impressed with the voting returns considering she was recruited as a write-in candidate and was not expected to campaign.

Unlike most candidates competing for victory in Tuesday's election, Dominguez-Gasson is a full-time student at Santa Clara, and the president of the university's College Republicans club. But homework and class commitments were not the only difficulties Domingeuz-Gasson overcame throughout her campaign for District 22.

The senior political science and psychology major faced heart problems, a meager $2,000 budget, running against an incumbent in a democratic county, and a disappointing performance in her only debate.

Even worse, Dominguez-Gasson had to file several police reports against a stalker she acquired during the campaign.

"The whole thing was sort of scary but I knew going in this would not be easy or barrier free," Dominguez-Gasson said.

Republicans recruited her last spring as an alternative to the stereotypical conservative candidate.

Though she may not seem like a typical Republican, Dominguez-Gasson's views clearly reflect those of the GOP.

"We are the party that ended slavery, we are the party that ended communism, and now we're working to end terrorism and fight the abuses against women," she said.

Not everyone has been receptive to Dominguez-Gasson, however. While campaigning to register voters, people hurled epithets and even objects at her. She also received an e-mail that referred to her as a "dirty Mexican" and others still accused her of being an "Iraqi baby killer."

Since campaigning, Dominguez-Gasson has been put on medications for her heart and has seen her grades suffer.

"All in all, I have no regrets. I'm glad I did it." she said.

Dominguez-Gasson believes many politicians have historically ignored young people because they typically do not vote. That assumption has changed this year with efforts targeted at young voters such as Rock the Vote and Vote or Die, she said.

Dominguez-Gasson boasts of having registered over 300 young Republicans just this summer and finds it refreshing that many were students or recent graduates.

"We've noticed younger people, coming out of college, couples, usually well educated are marking a trend in the new registrations." Dominguez-Gasson said.

Many voters and reporters have had doubts about Dominguez-Gasson mainly because of her age. One reporter commented that she was not even old enough to drink, to which Dominguez-Gasson snapped back that drinking never did Ted Kennedy any good.

Another point of frustration for the young candidate was her professional listing on the ballots which printed Dominguez-Gasson as a student/tutor while her Democratic opponent, Sally Lieber, was listed as an incumbent lawmaker.

Dominguez-Gasson worried that she would lose conservative votes if she was seen as inexperienced so she fought for two weeks to have the ballot read "pre law student," with no avail.

She found it unfortunate that her opponent was so confident in a victory that she did not campaign very enthusiastically.

According to district numbers, Santa Clara Country is significantly Democratic, with 43.4 percent registered as democrats 26.7 percent registered republican and 25.5 percent undecided.

Dominguez-Gasson would have needed to win most of those undecided voters, a considerable challenge for a candidate up against an incumbent.

Her campaign strategy was unique in that she did not attempt to "go negative" on her incumbent opponent and even used many of her volunteer resources to help other candidates.

The College Republicans club at Santa Clara boasts a membership of over 200 students and has over 20 very active members involved, who helped with the campaign.

To win election, many politicians feel "going negative" is necessary -- as seen in this year's presidential election. But Dominguez-Gasson refused even though her opponent, Lieber, was accused of misleading voters.

In September, 2002, the San Jose Mercury News reported that Lieber was "trying to mislead voters by using the ballot designation 'councilwoman/transit director-.' " and also that "a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled that Lieber can't call herself a 'transit director' because it's not her principal occupation and never was."

Lieber is in fact a high school dropout who later obtained a GED degree and attended Stanford University but never graduated, according to the Mercury News.

Dominguez-Gasson also declined to mention that Lieber was the target of an attempted 2002 recall effort to remove her from the Mountain View City Council. The recall attempt ended when she was elected to the 22nd Assembly district.

Lieber would not respond for comment.

* ààContact David Wilson at (408) 554-4546 or dfwilson@scu.edu.