Were it not for the Seven Dwarfs — the vanity candidates who served as strategic distractions from the main event, cannon fodder effectively, state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Culver City) probably would be celebrating his election to the County Board of Supervisors this morning.
Instead, the undisputed winner of yesterday’s 2nd District vote still must resolve the original dispute with his main rival in a now extended race that swells by the hour in visceral, barb-flinging bitterness.
Falling short of the 50 %-plus-one threshold, the senator has been forced into a November runoff —exactly five months from today — against L.A. City Councilman Bernard Parks for the seat Yvonne Brathwaite Burke will vacate in December.
The Differences
The candidates’ profiles, and their separate-worlds personalities told the story of the campaign. Although both are registered Democrats, any resemblance is incidental.
While Sen. Ridley-Thomas emphasizes the diversity of his major backers, the race obviously pitted the fiscal and human forces of labor unions on behalf of the senator against far more conservative business interests supporting the fired police chief.
Not that Mr. Parks monopolized business support. The Culver City Chamber of Commerce, in a surprise, endorsed Sen. Ridley-Thomas and so did all five members of the City Council.
The traditionally liberal Sen. Ridley-Thomas won big labor’s hearty endorsement and reaped the benefits of a bulging union bankroll. The strongest labor unions in Los Angeles invested a whopping $4 million, which was an overwhelming figure in this most expensive race in history where the candidates themselves spent far less. To place that in perspective, the senator spent roughly 20 percent of $4 million, a relatively scant $800,000, out of campaign coffers.
The Winner’s Consolation
But the senator was not complaining because he said the crowded field virtually assured a runoff. “When I went to bed this morning, I felt grateful, truly grateful,” he said.
Once the confetti and emotions were swept away early this morning from the raucous scene inside the Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton Gateway Hotel, near LAX, Sen. Ridley-Thomas’s post-election party headquarters, he could take consolation in having a passel of intangibles on his side — not the smallest of which is momentum from yesterday.
Having briefly refreshed himself overnight, Sen. Ridley-Thomas vowed after breakfast that he is not slowing down. He will not seek a respite from campaigning. He wants to keep the momentum going. “I am not stopping because I want to win,” he said. Sounding like a ballplayer emerging from spring training, he said that “the primary election was just a dress rehearsal.”
He will have 22 weeks to stew over a reasonably impressive but perhaps not fully satisfying outing.
Instead of 50%-plus-one, the senator finished with 45.29 % of a typically light primary vote to 39.80% for Mr. Parks.
Daylight Between the Two Contenders
Comfortably winning the absentee vote and leading from start to finish on a day when 4 out of 5 voters stayed home, the senator captured 56,951 votes to 50,051 for Mr. Parks. This represents a solid 6900-vote margin among the 107,000 votes cast for the two candidates.
The seven faceless also-rans in the two-personality race probably served their purpose by draining key votes that prevented Sen. Ridley-Thomas from immediately clinching the seat.
In a field where two of the pretending contenders were named “Doc,” and a third went by “F,” the seven of them siphoned off 18,770 votes, nearly one-fifth as many as the serious contenders. So they were more than a flyspeck factor.
Why November Will be Different
Undoubtedly, the momentum for the general election favors the senator, but the dynamics and the whole atmosphere of an unprecedented Presidential election will be far different, much less casual, than the recent campaign.
The November voter turnout will multiple yesterday’s.
Given the immensity of the Barack Obama bid and the immensity of accompanying emotions, triple, a score of new factors will come into play.
Sen. Ridley-Thomas will be challenged to sustain his momentum, and the labor unions who spent vast human capital aside from the millions will be called upon to wind up and do it all over again.
And so, the first change in the makeup of the 5-person Board of Supervisors in 12 years will have to wait a little longer.
