[img]1604|left|Bill Bloomfield||no_popup[/img]First of a series
• 33rd Congressional District:
U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), 126,880 votes, 53.72 percent.
Bill Bloomfield (I), 109, 297 votes, 46.28 percent.
Enduring a lumpy, sunless wave of disappointment this afternoon after losing last night to not-yet-vulnerable 73-year-old Henry Waxman, one of the longest reigning kings of Congress, supporters of first-time candidate Bill Bloomfield suddenly perked up when he issued the following announcement two hours ago:
“Sure I will run again in two years – unless I can think of a better way. Maybe,” the diversified entrepreneur told the newspaper, “it will be promoting somebody else who has a better shot at winning.”
Not really.
The longer the Westside native thought about it, the likelier it seemed to him, and the people around him, that his mission still is to fulfill the centerpiece of his unique late campaign:
Speaking only as a full-throated Independent, emphatically not as a Republican or Democrat, to convert the deeply embedded Waxman seat in Congress into the hitching post of a mature reformer. He told audiences his trained, disciplined character and penetrating nonpartisan philosophy are the keys to dislodging festering Congressional gridlock.
The Size of It
A reformer by practice and a success by habit, Mr. Bloomfield, has committed to making an imprint with his untraditional, nonpartisan legislative theology. He scarcely was slowed by yesterday’s17,600-vote loss among the 236,000 cast.
A pivotal difference:
Mr. Waxman has built a massive national profile during 19 terms in Washington. Mr. Bloomfield’s image was far more restricted, and that was an insurmountable handicap, this time anyway.
(In an aside, he believes his chances would have been improved with a hoped-for turnout of 90,000 more, in the 325,000 range, roughly 75 percent of the 447,000 registered voters.)
Last night at the Marriott in Manhattan Beach, encircled by hundreds of optimistic friends and loyalists – starting with his fiancé Susan – the celebrating would have elevated a deaf man on his death bed.
Mr. Bloomfield was thinking back to that shining interlude when he said:
“What I am trying to do this afternoon is distance myself. It’s finally happening.
Time Out for Fatigue
“I slept in this morning because I was so tired. I am distancing myself specifically from the roller coaster ride that occurred last night but also from the ride of the last nine months.
“Taking a big picture look at the last nine months, I am pleased that we got 46.3 percent of the vote. Against a 38-year entrenched incumbent, we did a whole lot better than anyone thought we would do.”
He is confident he made people sit up straight with his recurring theme of being party-blind.
“It is very obvious,” Mr. Bloomfield reasoned, “that when given the message that the problem with Congress is the hyper-partisanship, the public gets it and responds.”
Next, an ever so gentle zetz to Mr. Waxman’s ribs.
“I am pleased that during the campaign, Congressman Waxman responded to our message, so that mostly we talked about how to get Congress working.
“I have the feeling that as the bi-partisan one, I can stake the claim that I am better suited to changing the course in Washington.”
(To be continued)
