The race for the state Senate

Alex Coolman

Steve Ray remembers the day the presidential candidate changed his

life.

Ray was 11 and had traveled from his home in Urbana, Ohio, to see the

candidate talk. The man’s name was John F. Kennedy.

“He spoke, and it was like magic,” Ray recalled. “I got to shake his

hand.”

It was the beginning of a political fascination for Ray, who is

running as the Democratic candidate for the 35th Senate District against

incumbent Ross Johnson (R-Irvine).

It was also the start of a lifelong love of politics, one that

solidified into a firm party orientation a few weeks after the Kennedy

encounter, when Richard Nixon came through a nearby town.

“The guy seriously gave me the willies. Seriously. I became a Kennedy

supporter and became a Democrat,” Ray said.

Republicans are still giving Ray the willies today, and Johnson is no

exception. Ray rips into his opponent for what he calls inadequate

attention to his district and policies that are out of touch with voters’

needs.

The main reason Johnson has dominated his district so effectively, Ray

contends, is simply that the Democrats have been letting him run with

only token opposition.

“We Democrats have for the most part acquiesced these seats and

haven’t made any real, serious efforts to challenge these Republican

incumbents, most of whom are so far right that they don’t represent their

own constituents,” he said.

Like other Democrats in this fall’s race, Ray believes his positions

have the potential to capture a significant chunk of the moderate vote,

particularly among female Republicans.

Courting that demographic, Ray stresses his attention to education,

health care and the environment. They are issues that have the potential

to pull in Republicans who hope for more government leadership on these

points, he said.

At the same time, Ray pays attention to a question he thinks will

resonate with working people who might look to a Democrat for strong

representation: minimum wage.

“A person who works for minimum wage in the state of California is so

far below the poverty line,” Ray said. “If you have two or three kids,

forget it.”