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I had to scoot over in my seat to make room for my mind where a large question mark loomed.

Through Santa Barbara, Los Olivos, San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, Atascadero, Salinas, Castroville and Santa Cruz, I wondered what fallout there would be back home from the candidate Steve Gourley’s brash performance the night before.

Which Way Will They Tilt?

Would his candor help or hurt his campaign?

From the forum inside the Vets Auditorium, it was impossible to tell.

There was detectable, but not strong, reaction to two of Mr. Gourley’s unorthodox actions. Therefore, I wondered what the eyewitnesses would tell friends who were not in the audience that was head-counted at 120?

Heard a buzz around the community on Friday morning, and I fielded several telephone calls. But the sampling was too small, even for Culver City where 80 percent of voters stay home rather than risk writer’s cramp in School Board elections.

An Unscheduled Ending

In my experience, I never had seen a candidate commit either action.

As all concerned parties around town know by now, Mr. Gourley unilaterally ended what had been a formful evening long before the scheduled conclusion.

At 9 o’clock, he stood up and asked the moderator what remained on the program. Armed with her answer, Mr. Gourley promptly announced that it was late, he had had enough and he was leaving for home, whether anyone else was going or not.

Earlier, Mr. Gourley had made one other unorthodox contribution.

Language and Discourse

In several of his answers, especially when he was upset, he included what could be considered salty language. Not every person would agree with the assessment of salty, but many would.

I snapped up my head during those three or four responses, but I do not recall more than a trace of reaction from the audience. Perhaps I am a prude.

After weeks of talk about how closely bunched the five fairly similar candidates were, Mr. Gourley, the former Mayor and the only challenger who has served at City Hall, did not just step apart from the field, last Thursday.

He lunged with a vengeance.

The First to be Counted

Comes now a Letter to the Editor from Charles Deen, who did, indeed, take umbrage. Mr. Deen stressed in his message that he was writing as a private individual, not as a member of the sponsoring organization.

Instead of referring to Mr. Gourley by name, Mr. Deen, by now a well-known activist, branded the candidate “That Rude, Crude Political Dude.”

Here is what Mr. Deen wrote:

“As one of the organizers of Thursday night’s School Board Forum at Veterans Auditorium, I was offended by your poor choice of crude, uneducated
diction — on a school night no less.