Student runs for assembly

By David Wilson

With one year left at Santa Clara, junior Marie Dominguez-Gasson announced her candidacy for state assembly and will be on the ballot for the November elections as the republican candidate for District 22.

"Even though this isn't where I saw myself, I decided it'd be hypocritical not to take this amazing opportunity," she said.

Dominguez-Gasson joins a list of past Santa Clara students who have entered politics such as Gavin Newsom, Richard Riordan, Leon Panetta, and Jerry Brown.

But unlike those four, Dominguez-Gasson could take office while she's still a student at Santa Clara.

"It is a full-time job and I'd have to be in Sacramento so I would take time off school, and take courses in the summer," she said.

One of Dominguez-Gasson's long-term goals is to put a new face on the Republican party. As a young, Latina candidate, she has already begun to challenge the traditional republican image.

Dominguez-Gasson is also concerned that her party isn't vocal enough and has sat back too long, saying too little in light of the media's criticism. She believes that politicians have become too much like figureheads and should voice the concerns of their constituents better.

The Santa Clara junior has learned that the election process is more difficult than she had first imagined. She described her week in Burbank, gathering signatures, as the toughest week yet.

"It hit me to the core," Dominguez-Gasson said. "I'm fairly moderate but people thinking I'm an angry, racist Republican was hard to deal with."

Before a moderate-conservative group approached Domiguez-Gasson and asked her to run, she had never seen herself running for office. Instead, she imagined working behind the scenes, even doing research.

Dominguez-Gasson was recruited as a name-only candidate, meaning she'd run under the GOP, but wouldn't receive any endorsement. In the primaries, democrats cast twice as many ballots, which proves she's running in an overwhelmingly liberal district. Dominguez-Gasson hasn't accepted this name-only idea, and has formed a committee of Santa Clara students, and brought in a political consultant.

Instead of seeing her political inexperience as a disadvantage, Dominguez-Gasson believes her fresh perspective would be valuable.

Aside from public office experience, Dominguez-Gasson is involved in her school and community. She helped found the Santa Clara College Republican Chapter and started a drive against a furnace and smokestack being proposed by Lockheed.

Dominguez-Gasson is currently pursuing a double major in political science and psychology, with a pre-law emphasis. She hopes to have a fellowship in Sacramento after graduation. Eventually, she hopes to pursue both her masters degree, as well as a law degree.

û Contact David Wilson at (408) 554-4546 or dfwilson@scu.edu.