Whether it was being double-crossed by U.S. Rep. Diane Watson (D-Culver City), the dismissive way she says she was treated by her rivals or the low-esteem in which her moral values were held, Tuesday’s failed run for a state Senate seat was a jolt for Saundra Davis.
“But I feel good today about who I am,” said the two-term School Board member who was trying her first out-of-town race. “At least I did not have to sell my soul.”
Finishing sixth in an 8-candidate field tends to encourage a spurt of self-introspection, and Ms. Davis said this morning that she liked what she saw.
“I am absolutely fabulous,” she said, convincingly. “When I woke up yesterday, I asked myself, ‘Are you depressed? No. Are you sick? No.’
“I am so blessed.”
Self-Esteem Undefeated
Ms. Davis almost sounded exhilarating.
For a moment.
“I have just gone through the experience of a lifetime.”
A history lesson may have kept her from becoming too blue after losing. Eight years ago when she ran for her first term on the School Board, one of the losing contenders complained of being depressed by the outcome. He abjured Ms. Davis not to let a defeat flatten her. She recalled that scene when the sun actually did rise on the morning after her elimination.
The mother of 8 was markedly different from the field in ways well beyond gender. Unshakably Democratic, she is deeply religious, and she proudly wears her faith as a badge of identity.
She found it unsettling, however, that her moral values did not count, either with her colleagues or voters. “I was disheartened that my message — you need someone in Sacramento who will watch over the community and not be beholden to special interests — did not resonate.”
“Special interests” was a peripheral, if unmistakable, reference to the winner of the race, Assemblyman Curren D. Price (D-Inglewood).
Comparing Donations
After congratulating him for his victory, she criticized the relative pot of gold he raised, $1.4 million, compared to her hiccup, $25,000. Most of his money, she said, was attached to strings controlled by special interest groups.
Reaching for a comforting contrast, she said that Mr. Price’s fundraising came in much larger chunks than hers.
“I will always remember the stacks and stacks of envelopes from the many people who supported me,” Ms. Davis said. “These people didn’t have a lot of money. But they sent what they could. I had lots of envelopes. Curren Price had only a few. I feel good about that.
“I stayed in the race,” said Ms. Davis, “with the idea that by my values, by the works I have done, people would understand I was on their side, that I would fight for them, not for special interests. Now I realize that was naive.”
If she was naive going into the two-month campaign to fill Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas’s former chair in Sacramento, her innocence was destroyed in numerous ways.
“The only thing that brought tears to my eyes,” said Ms. Davis, “was an incident with Diane Watson, whom I always have regarded as a mentor.”
Inarguably one of the highest profile members of Congress, the 75-year-old Ms. Watson is in her sixth term in Washington after spending 20 years in Sacramento.
Early in the present campaign, Ms. Watson endorsed Ms. Davis, the only woman in the field.
The Letdown
Not long before election day, Ms. Davis was jarred by an email from Mr. Price.
About that time, she also received a telephone call from Ms. Watson’s office. A staffer asked Ms. Davis if she minded whether the Congresswoman issued a dual endorsement of two candidates who were running against each other.
Obviously, an answer would not require lengthy deliberation
“Yes, I do mind,” said the shocked and hurt Ms. Davis.
Ms. Watson, known for playing some of the most muscular hardball in Washington, was not slowed down by her friend’s response. She threw her support to Mr. Price, the race-long favorite.
Ms. Davis felt a sense of betrayal even more acutely because of an encounter during the late Presidential campaign.
Ms. Davis and her friends were vigorously supporting Barack Obama. Nearly all of the black community was in the Obama camp. Contrarily, Ms. Watson stubbornly backed Hillary Clinton.
Confronting the sizable Congresswoman, Ms. Davis asked her friend, “How can you?”
Said Ms. Watson: “It is a question of loyalty, and loyalty means everything to me. My bond is my word.”
Oh, yeah? Ms. Davis wondered in the afterglow of this week’s election. “I wonder what has happened to her loyalty.”
Her Colleagues Were Different?
Throughout the candidate’s reflections, the term “disheartening” repeatedly bobbed up.
“I don’t want to name any names,” Ms. Davis said, “but one of my greatest disappointments was the way I was ostracized by my fellow candidates.”
She declined to enlarge on the assertion, although she mentioned the constant disappearance of lawn signs within hours of being driven into the ground. Except for last Sunday afternoon in front of City Councilman Chris Armenta’s East Side home, she did not remember any other strong winds blowing through Culver City.
If the campaign educated her, Ms. Davis said, at least it did not change her.
“I am not a by-hook-or-by-crook candidate who has to win at any cost,” she said. “The rest were.”
As for her future, Ms. Davis is not divulging plans.
“I am leaving my options open,” she said.” She would not venture whether she will try for a third School Board term in November.
“I have options outside of politics,” she said. “Politics is not in my blood.”
