How fitting that on a night of splendid triumph for unorthodoxy, Prof. Kelly Kent, anticipating with bullseye precision, was delivering what sounded like a victory speech in her backyard even though only absentee votes had been posted by the 10 o’clock hour.
Unmistakable, maybe even irreversible, jubilation permeated the chilly evening air on the grounds of the unique near-Downtown family complex that is home to three generations of Kents.
Surely the crowning scenario in the dramatic shadows of the backyard was in Dr. Kent’s final notes.
After thanking 911 progressive people for sealing the success of her first try for office, she called her handsome husband Hector Marin to her side on the top step. With raw candor, Dr. Kent spoke of their numerous differences, and then she sparked images of arrow-bearing Cupid by declaring a unifying love.
The crowd-pleasing climax was a bracing — and embracing — kiss that was made for the movies.
At that very moment across town, where her rivals Anne Burke and Scott McVarish had gathered at the home of Paul and Madeline Ehrlich, the talk was of the surging popularity of bullet voting.
Both themes – Dr. Kent’s confident presumption of smartly polished success and the role bullet voting played in yet another School Board race – equally defined the results of yesterday’s voting.
Dr. Kent and Ms. Burke will ascend to the School Board later this month. They succeed the retiring Laura Chardiet and Nancy Goldberg.
Here is how Culver City voted:
- Kelly Kent, 1888, 41 percent
- Anne Burke, 1461, 32 percent
- Scott McVarish, 1228, 27 percent
Dr. Kent, a brainy neuroscientist whom critics said was too tekkie, too lasered in on teaching techniques rather than on the policy matters that traditionally occupy school boards, demonstrated that tradition is for some but not all office-seekers.
The power of bullet voting – marking for a single person on the ballot regardless of how many seats are open – tilted a three-way race that, from kickoff to conclusion, was too close to call.
Because bullet voting played such a heavyweight role, it is difficult to assess the Burke-McVarish strategy of running as a plainly connected double entry.
The twin pair promoted similar ideas, presented themselves as a single unit, a genuine two’fer. Therefore, if they could monopolize a voter’s attention, one coin, two complementary sides, they could promise a greater impact than if they had been split and run single. Their plan: Walk onto the School Board stage arm in arm – 200 percent impact compared to 100 percent.
Weighing the worthiness of that tactic, however, will have to wait for another day.
One memorable moment in Dr. Kent’s preview victory speech came when she applauded her Parks and Recreation Commission colleague Scott Zeidman.
“He is not here, but he definitely deserves recognition,” she said of the former School Board member, a known conservative contrasted with her liberalism.
“He is really proud of me. I am really excited that he supported me. I am glad that I got traction from it.
“Scott is going to continue to advise me,” said Dr. Kent. “That will be good. It speaks to the value you can get from people you are different from.”
