After enduring two slim and emotional electoral losses in four days in last week’s City Council race, Meghan Sahli-Wells emerged today scarcely nicked by the results.
“I am okay, just a bit disappointed,” she said, evenhandedly. “Thirty-one votes is a very narrow margin.”
She trailed ultimate winner Jeff Cooper by 42 votes on Election Night, and on Friday, after 436 late-arriving ballots were tabulated, she scooted closer, but finished 31 votes behind.
Perhaps buoyed by her pre-determined decision to run again in the 2012 election, probably against three Council incumbents, Ms. Sahli-Wells is eschewing the past for the future.
“I have a lot of work to do the next two years,” she said.
For now, though, her exact task remains undefined. She came so close in her first try that she is not sure, at this early stage, she will make any changes for her next run.
“What this first campaign has done is to get my name out there,” Ms. Sahli-Wells said. “That is what a campaign does. Hopefully, people will remember the next time.
“Quite frankly, I hope the newspapers will report on how close it was.”
Question: What do you want people to remember about you for the next two years when they hear the name Meghan Sahli-Wells?
“I am hoping, at the very least, people will remember my platform. It developed in response to what I was hearing from community groups, and in walking door-to-door. At least I was able to bring those important issues out into the public — the environment, direct community involvement, transparency, responsiveness, inclusion. What I talked about was changing our approach at City Hall to be inclusive so we can do our very best.
“Regarding the environment, as Van Jones and others have mentioned, it is important to make sure that being ‘environmentally responsible’ is not just a green statement. It is an economic statement.
“I said it over and over when I was talking to voters:
“I live with my grandmother. She lived through the Depression. I talk today about sustainability. But for my grandmother, it is common sense, how you survive so that you are not wasting. ‘Waste not, want not.’ That is a very basic principle. Not wasting has no political color to it, a basic human tenet we can all agree on.
“I think we will find that the more responsible we are with the environment, the more responsible we will be with our budget.
“What I mentioned in my platform from the beginning, I hope I contributed to framing the debate.
“During the campaign, a lot of people started saying, ‘What’s the difference between the candidates? You guys have the same message.’
“That makes me happy. The fact of the matter is, my platform was online in November when I did my campaign kickoff. None of the other candidates had a stated public platform at that time.
“I feel very proud. I believe I helped to frame the debate and raise some of these issues. The others agreed with me they are important. Now we have to hold them to it.”
Four years ago, after Councilman Mehaul O’Leary lost a race for Council, he promptly went out, joined groups, became more active in the community and considerably elevated his profile. Will you do that?
“I think that is a good technique. I already belong to a whole bunch of groups. I have a schedule this week that is almost insane. I have meetings every night. My groups are perhaps not traditional service organizations. They include environmental groups. I am talking about neighborhood associations whose mission is to go beyond the neighborhood. I still will be on my Council-appointed committees, too.
“I was already out there by being very active, and I will remain very active. I don’t want (any increase inmy involvement) to be an artificial thing to gain visibility.
“I am doing what I believe in. And I feel fortunate to be able to spend the time doing it. “
