Who snookered whom?
The smartest person inside City Hall posed this intriguing question over the weekend:
“If the Culver City Democratic Club can endorse Daniel Lee less than two months after he registered as a Democrat, why can’t the club endorse Republicans? Do you see any difference?”
How Mr. Lee became one of the Democratic Club’s three endorsees for the April 12 City Council election remains the most intriguing storyline from the last monthly meeting.
At 36 years old, Mr. Lee told the audience he has been a political activist all of his adult life. But prior to Dec. 15, when it became imperative to sign up as a Democrat for his nascent City Council campaign, Mr. Lee had been a Declines-to-State type.
When it came time for Mr. Lee to respond to Councilman Jim Clarke’s presumably uncomfortable question – how long have you been a registered Democrat? – he turned discomfort on its head.
Speaking so softly – and confidently – that some audience members had to suspend their breathing, Mr. Lee served up a justification that seldom passes.
His calm manner having clinched his case, Mr. Lee suggested that criticism of Democrats from a so-called outsider would be taken more seriously than from someone within the ranks.
“By Daniel’s logic,” said the Smartest Person Inside City Hall, “if criticism from the outside is what makes a Democrat, then the Democratic Club ought not exclude Republicans and Decline-to-State candidates from their endorsements.”
According to testimony at the meeting by prominent club members Rick Tuttle, Carlene Brown and Daryl Cherness, Mr. Lee qualified – in two brief months – to be endorsed because he “thinks like us.”
Said the Smartest Person Inside City Hall:
“I am not exactly sure how they would know that. Mr. Lee was not a member of the club prior to deciding to run for office.
“It might be a pejorative term these days, opportunists like that used to be called carpetbaggers.”
The Smartest Person was just warming up.
“If a no-time Democrat is acceptable because he thinks like them, and the Democratic Club believes in democracy, why exclude others merely because of lack an acceptable label?
“Might not those who have been excluded ‘think like them,’ too?
‘If the club really was interested in evaluating the candidates in order to let the community know who would do the best job for the community,” said the Smartest Person, “we never will know because it’s all about the label.”
