For an eminently qualified person, what does it feel like to be noiselessly isolated in public, before a roomful of partisans?
The question was put to City Council candidate Scott Wyant this morning.
Nearly a week has passed since the insider-heavy Culver City Democratic Club treated him like a pariah, a stunningly unwelcome intruder from outer space.
The four identifiable Democrats chasing three open Council seats in the April 12 election were invited to last Wednesday’s Dem Club endorsement meeting – Councilperson Meghan Sahli Wells, Daniel Lee, Thomas Small and Mr. Wyant.
The capacity crowd, with no shortage of new faces, applauded strenuously when Messrs. Lee and Small, and Ms. Sahli Wells answered each question.
Shockingly (?), stony silence was the unanimous audience reaction to every response by the erudite Mr. Wyant.
“I don’t think (the planned silence) was unexpected on anybody’s part,” he said evenly. “I was happy to get eight votes.”
From the audience of 60 voting members, the aforementioned Sahli Wells-Small-Lee triumvirate, each received between 53 and 58 votes, compared to Mr. Wyant’s paltry total.
Mr. Wyant entered the meeting in the Rotunda Room of the Vets Auditorium “not expecting” to receive an endorsement no matter how stringy he performed.
Why?
He paused and thought carefully before responding.
“I fully expected the Democratic Club to endorse Meghan, Thomas and Daniel as a slate,” he said.
Why?
“They are of a piece. They are running together.
“I am not part of the Democratic Club, and certainly not part of the Democratic Club insiders.
“I went there happy to speak to people whom I would hope would listen to me. I learned a lot from the process, and I was able to practice speaking in front of and responding to a group of people who were asking questions I did not necessarily already know the answers to,” said Mr. Wyant.
“It was practice for the campaign trail. I didn’t know what they were going to ask.”
Noting that he was “not surprised” by the consistent wall of silence that was his fate, Mr. Wyant said that “I was saying things that did not necessarily agree with the opinions of the people in the room. I was telling the truth, expressing my political opinions, my personal beliefs,.
“I can’t expect every audience to agree with me. I don’t.”
For example, “I was not aware the Democratic Club actually had come out in favor of banning red light cameras. It is so painfully obvious to me that they are good,” said Mr. Wyant.
“I have gotten two red light tickets myself. Both times I was guilty. Both times I realized if I had been driving two cars coming to the intersection at the same time, I would have run into myself.
“I was driving foolishly, poorly. Like I said in front of the crowd, when people see red light cameras and the light turns yellow, they stop instead of speeding up. That is a good thing,” Mr. Wyant said.
It’s now seems quite obvious by its latest lock-step, liberal endorsements that much of the values the Culver City Democratic Club once held have been tossed out the window and trashed.
It has now become the exclusive domain for partisan insiders. The word is out that long-time party moderates need not join or seek their approval.
During her first term in office, Ms Sahli-Wells, being the council’s lone liberal, found much of her own left-leaning agenda being stopped in its tracks due to the lack of a procedural second. So, many of her liberal proposals died on the dais without even being discussed by the council.
As the only incumbent running, Ms Sahli-Wells looks quite secure in her re-election. So much so, that her supporters now believe she has long enough “coattails” to carry a slate of other like-minded candidates onto the council.
If the general electorate remains apathetic and does not come out to vote–as it did in the last school board election– it would give this small liberal clique an opportunity to get out enough of their local partisans to sway another election. There by, imposing for the first time in Culver City’s almost 100-year history, a liberal majority on our council and placing candidates into office, not necessarily for the actual number of votes they received, but, due largely to the greater number of votes not cast in the election.
George, you speak of the voter apathy as if someone gave the town a bug and therefore were too sick too vote…. Don’t criticize those who can inspire voters to show up..criticize those who cannot