Democrats Vow to Win Back Voters in Valley : Politics: Party luminaries kick off the fall campaign with rallies in Sherman Oaks, Encino, Tarzana and San Fernando.

Vowing to win back those who had strayed from the fold and to lure more voters into the party, San Fernando Valley Democrats declared war on the status quo Saturday as they kicked off the fall campaign with a daylong series of rallies.

“If people in this Valley get out and vote, they are going to vote to change the status quo,” U.S. Senate candidate Dianne Feinstein told hundreds of cheering Clinton-Gore supporters who had gathered in a Sherman Oaks parking lot.

But Feinstein and other Democratic luminaries participating in the day’s events acknowledged that they have their work cut out for them.

“This election will not be a cakewalk,” said Phil Angelides, state Democratic Party chairman, who urged the assembled volunteers to give “a little extra” to the party this year. “It will be close and it will be decided in California.”

Democrats hold the edge in voter registration in all but two of the Valley’s Assembly districts. Nevertheless, a majority of voters in all but one of the districts supported Ronald Reagan over Walter Mondale in 1984.

In 1988, the Democrats won back many Reagan supporters as most Valley voters backed Michael Dukakis over George Bush. But there still were hundreds of Valley Democrats who voted Republican, voters the Democrats vowed to win back this year.

“This is where this election is going to be decided,” Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) said Saturday. “The battleground is here in the San Fernando Valley.”

Republicans have said they too will place heavy emphasis on the Valley this fall with the opening of three, perhaps four, campaign headquarters in the next few weeks.

“The Republican Party is going to have a very strong presence in the San Fernando Valley,” said Bill Fahey, Bush-Quayle campaign director for Los Angeles County.

Saturday’s Democratic day started with the opening of the Encino headquarters of Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles) and ended with a rally at the Valley’s new Democratic campaign headquarters in Sherman Oaks.

Between, there was a luncheon in Tarzana and a salsa music-spiced picnic in a San Fernando park.

Feinstein spoke at all four events.

“The Valley’s important to me,” she said as she signed autographs at the Latino Unity Day picnic in San Fernando. “This Valley needs to be represented and I want to represent it.”

“I pray every night for you people,” said one man as he shook Feinstein’s hand.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City), who organized the park event, said he did so to show that the “old stereotype of San Fernando Valley Anglo conservatism is out the window.”

At the parking lot rally, several celebrities joined Angelides and Katz on the stage after Feinstein spoke.

Actor Joe Regalbuto of television’s “Murphy Brown” received the biggest applause from the partisan crowd.

Regalbuto said Vice President Dan Quayle’s remarks about the show had given him an opportunity to speak out for Bill Clinton and Albert Gore.

“I come to you as a member of the cultural elite,” he said.

After the events concluded, Democrats declared the day a success.

“This has been one of the most encouraging days for Democrats in the Valley in years,” Friedman said.

“This is the first time I’ve seen such young enthusiasm since Kennedy ran,” said Rose Woodhull of Van Nuys as she headed home. “It’s time for the World War II generation to move over and let another one take over.”