Re: “One of the Mailers: Addressed or Undressed?”
Would the City Council election have turned out differently if anonymously authored mailers sympathetic to the progressive cause had not been strategically distributed?
No one knows, at least yet.
Those sympathetic to targeted candidates believe the outcome would have been more favorable.
Those backing the winners insist the hit pieces were meaningless, merely an example of free speech. Reaction of offended voters has been overblown, they charge.
The same candidates were targeted in both mailers that have emerged – Goran Eriksson, who won the third and final Council seat at stake, and Scott Wyant, who finished far back.
Because of their long service with the Chamber of Commerce, voters were told both men were prejudiced toward business, pro-developer, opposed to all residential causes such as traffic and the environment. Business and residential causes were antithetical to each other, the message went.
The mailer in the photo accompanying this story – later shown to be factually inaccurate — was aimed at Fox Hills voters.
The progressive authors warned voters that if certain business-oriented candidates were chosen, the sky would fall for two reasons.
“The mailer was intended to say that Fox Hills Plaza is going to have a thousand low-income housing units and a used car lot,” a Fox Hills housewife told the newspaper. “They were talking about the old CVS (pharmacy) site.
“Here is where it gets tricky. A Culver City car dealer has bought a huge parcel of land on the other side of the (405) freeway, in back of the DoubleTree hotel, where Chick-fil-a is.
“The rumor is that the dealer wants to put a car lot and (low-income) apartments there,” she continued.
“This could be true. The problem is, however, the land in question is in Los Angeles, not Culver City. Voters were not supposed to know that.”
Mr. Noonan
The business card and flyer are not by the same person. Make sure you get your facts correct. Publishing false information is liable. The business card does not belong with the flyer—you’ve got the wrong person.
Carl Jolly: The business card was stapled to the flyer that was distributed. That is how it was received by the people in Fox Hills. If Yumi did not have this distributed with her business card attached, she should let all the people who got it know. Until then, it can only be attributed to her.
“The same candidates were targeted in both mailers that have emerged – Goran Eriksson, who won the third and final Council seat at stake, and Scott Wyant, who finished far back.
Because of their long service with the Chamber of Commerce, voters were told both men were prejudiced toward business, pro-developer, opposed to all residential causes such as traffic and the environment. Business and residential causes were antithetical to each other, the message went.”
The above piece of literature:
1) is not a mailer
2) neither mentions nor alludes to Wyant or Eriksson
3) neither mentions nor alludes to the Chamber of Commerce
That’s a lot of inaccuracies in such a short blog post.
In any event, someone (and I have no idea who) apparently printed out a rudimentary b&w flier on his or her own dime and distributed it on his or her own two feet to his or her neighbors in Fox Hills, asking them to join him or her in supporting the candidates that he or she favors. Isn’t that what grassroots democracy is supposed to look like? If he or she had instead taken $10,000 from some PAC and had the above printed out in a professional, multi-color glossy format and had it mailed (at great expense) to every mailbox in the city, would that somehow be better?
Why in the world are we so fearful of grassroots democracy?
Grassroots, nope. Democracy, again nope. No one is fearful of a piece of paper. It is the consequences of how it is used. The person(s) responsible for these flyers were cowardly and did not sign their names. Had they done so, I probably wouldn’t have bothered to comment. It was a hate flyer that was specifically worded to a desired affect. It was unsigned. It targeted people unfairly. Spreading untruths to win tarnishes the democratic process. I suggest that next time, all candidates vow to shun anyone in their group who writes or circulates something anonymous. Keep it fair, let voters make up their minds based on what is true. I am an old fashioned Democrat and expect more from our local politicians than the side show that is the presidential election.
“Grassroots, nope. Democracy, again nope.”
Please explain. What’s undemocratic about the door-to-door distribution of this cheap flier? And in what way is it unrepresentative of grassroots action?
Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense anonymously. Was that grassroots? Was it democracy?
“It was a hate flyer that was specifically worded to a desired affect.”
Please point me to the “hate”. What are the actual hateful words on the above flier? And how does that alleged “hate” in any way compare to the genuine venom with which Mr. Noonan favors us right here on a daily basis?
Frankly I don’t see how this teeny weeny little piece of paper could at any time or in any way have competed with the wave of fliers that came through my door from Messers Eriksson, Wyant and Tiggs. Plus please consider the digital and social media advertising spend particularly from Wyant and Eriksson. And the huge number of articles and letters sent in to this blog speaking so lovingly about Wyant and Eriksson.
And don’t forget the nastiness that came spewing out of this ‘blog’ against Meghan and by association Small and Lee (who didn’t run their campaigns together – so nasty leftist plot happening there at all).
Calm down. Let it go. Meghan was on the Council anyway doing sterling work. So no change there. Goran is there now representing his supporters. And Thomas is the kind of person who can civilly and calmly reach ‘across the aisle’ anyway. So what’s the problem?