You can always tell when it is election season.
Your favorite remote hometown, state or federal politician — whom you have not seen since he had a full head of hair and his children were much younger — suddenly is ubiquitous, everywhere in your life, including seeming to be across the breakfast table from you each morning, sharing your cereal.
State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Culver City) is this morning’s illustration of ubiquity, comforting students, buttonholing leaders, trying valiantly to rescue King-Harbor Hospital, now in tatters but once a centerpiece of black community pride.
His strategy must be working.
The senator’s website — the most available election information even if it is debatedly objective data — asserts that he is leading his arch-opponent, Los Angeles City Councilman Bernie Parks, by 22 points in the June 3 race to succeed Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who is retiring from the County Board of Supervisors after four terms, 16 years.
Given the careening inaccuracies exposed virtually daily this spring in national and regional presidential polling, maybe it is just as well for Los Angeles voters that parochial polling has been invisible in the most fascinating race on the ballot 40 days from now.
The same Los Angeles journalistic outlets that breathlessly report one- and two-point swings in the run for the White House, look straight past this classic competition that pits the immaculate, business-backed Mr. Parks, the fired former police chief with his genteel image, against union-supported Sen. Ridley-Thomas, sleeves up, hands-on, an old-fashioned pol to the core.
Race Itself and Differences Ignored
The knife’s-edge contrasts in their styles and personalities figured to make this a match irresistible for the media — from midtown to Culver City to what used to be called South Central.
But the race has been ignored the way much of local politics has been overlooked in modern times — no scrutiny, no revealing insights, no instructive analyses of either candidate even though both have been public figures for decades, long enough to accumulate baggage, mouthy critics and bulging records worthy of debate in the remaining six weeks.
Through the senator’s website, David Binder, a San Francisco pollster, said in a memo this month after surveying 804 likely voters in the community:
Coming from Behind
“Ridley-Thomas runs surprisingly strong against the better-known Parks, and after a simulated campaign, Ridley-Thomas defeats Parks by a healthy margin. While Parks benefits initially from his stronger name recognition, his support is very soft, and voters move to Ridley-Thomas as they hear representative information about both candidates.
“Initially, nearly 80 percent of voters have an opinion about Parks, whereas 57 percent have an opinion of Ridley-Thomas. Despite Parks’ advantage in name recognition, his initial lead in the race over Ridley-Thomas is only 5 percent, as he leads 30 percent to 25 percent, with the remainder undecided or supporting one of the minor candidates.
“After a simulated campaign — meaning that voters received positive and negative statements on both candidates — Ridley-Thomas jumps to a lead of 22 percent.
“He leads 45 to 23 percent, with the remainder undecided or supporting minor candidates.
“Importantly, Ridley-Thomas improves his position substantially among Democrats, the largest group of voters in this district.”
Voter Reasoning
Mr. Binder, the pollster, said there are two broad explanations for the swing, voter preference for the senator’s more varied career background, in Sacramento and on the Los Angeles City Council, and for his well-publicized legislative efforts in three areas, alternatives to gangs, drug-related crimes and affordable housing.
Last Friday, in a well-received appearance at Culver City High School, Sen. Ridley-Thomas told the newspaper he believes he will beat Mr. Parks because “people are looking for leadership, for someone who has the broadest experience and who has a record of achievement. On that basis, I am confident that the people of the 2nd Supervisorial District will see that I have worked very hard, very effectively in the area of community empowerment, in the area of economic development and in the area of working to bring about better relationships among people, in this city and county.”
Reading and Speaking
Notice the precise and perfectly enunciated word formations.
So disciplined is the senator as a popular orator that when he is speaking extemporaneously, as he does most of the time, even then he may sound as if he is reading from a scholarly document.
“I have substantial support from law enforcement,” says Sen. Ridley-Thomas, “from unions, women’s groups, religious groups. So we are pretty broad across the spectrum.”
He did not hesitate when asked about the single most critical distinction from Mr. Parks.
“I am more broad in my experience, properly described as a visionary leader,,” the senator said. “Parks is more narrow in experience and frankly, more bureaucratic in his approach.”
