If you think last week’s Los Angeles election was royally snubbed by newspapers and television — but not radio — get a load of the latest unintended secret:
The so-called special election two weeks from tomorrow, on March 24, for the state Senate seat Mark Ridley-Thomas gave up last November after he was voted onto the County Board of Supervisors.
[img]397|left|Saundra Davis||no_popup[/img] Last week’s election was so thoroughly blown off that the Los Angeles Times refused to put Mayor Villaraigosa’s re-election on Page 1 the following day. The subsquent debate was over who should have felt more insulted, voters or the mayor.
The state Senate race, likewise, has staggered and stumbled, trying to gain a teardrop of traction.
Mr. Ridley-Thomas anointed Assemblyman Curren Price (D-Inglewood) as his replacement last November, and today Saundra Davis of Culver City is trying to break through a resistant wall of media inertia and voter fatigue.
Should the GOP Be Counted?
The field is crowded, 8 candidates, really 6 because 2 are Republicans. The GOP hasn’t won a race in this neighborhood since a time much closer to the Civil War.
So far, Mr. Price has had all the best of the attention:
He holds the most natural advantage of being an officeholder already, and he has run a crack publicity campaign, factors, along with the Ridley-Thomas endorsement, that established him as the favorite.
But Ms. Davis, in her eighth year as perhaps the most consistently high-profile member of the School Board, is trying, grittily, to loosen Mr. Price’s monopoly.
Talk Is Not New
Outgoing, ubiquitous and perhaps the least shyest person in Culver City when it comes to holding an opinion, Ms. Davis is treading new ground — state politics.
She and her friends have been whispering about such an incursion for years.
But when she decided to run, a flock of others had the same idea, and it isn’t clear whether or how much of a deterrent the traffic jam will be.
The talk of “Saundra to Sacramento” started as early as 2001 when she became the first black candidate to win elective office in the history of Culver City.
During certain periods ever since, Ms. Davis’ (at first) alleged interest in Sacramento was like a nosey neighborhood constantly peeking over her shoulder. It never went away.
No matter what the hot School Board subject of the day was, mention of a future seat in Sacramento usually wiggled into the conversation.
Coyly, she didn’t say yes. She also didn’t say no.
Intentionally or not, that sort of non-response only piqued interest in her plans, and it continued to fuel speculation that at least one of her eyes was ever on the state capital.
For all of that talk, no one ever has accused Ms. Davis of rounding corners and subjecting School Board matters to second place on her personal agenda.
Not that there has been a shortage of accusations.
Unlike less colorful members of the Board — and there have not been many of that type — everybody who has served with Ms. Davis during the last 8 years can, without preparation, unspool 30 minutes of ready commentary on her.
The combination of charm and opinionation usually translates into dynamite for a politician. “Dynamite” is an operative term in many assessments of Ms. Davis.
She packs the personality of a celebrity, which obviously is a good thing.
But colleague reviews of her temperament have tended to cast it as problematic, although criticism has cooled down the last several years, which may be attributed to one or both of the following factors:
• A change in the School Board makeup.
• A more moderate approach by Ms. Davis to the way she conducts business.
Numerous colorful Los Angeles politicians have gone to Sacramento over the years and fallen into an abyss of obscurity until they came back home.
Could that happen to the effervescent Ms. Davis?
The reason their hometowns tend to lose track of them, even Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Culver City), is not complicated: All Los Angeles media of stature ignores not only the day-to-day but year-to-year doings in Sacramento.
Next: Ms. Davis answers a battery of questions.
She may be contacted by email at saundavis@aol.com
