Re “It’s Kids’ Night Out and Candidates’ Night In”
Even though it was incorrectly reported last Thursday morning that Mayor Mehaul O’Leary, responding to a question, supported the prospective overturning of the Prop. 8 gay marriage ban, the students who attended the Kid Scoop Media-sponsored Candidates Forum really do like him.
Regardless of how the students in Ms. Genevieve Gilbert-Rolfe’s classes at Culver City High School may have felt about his single dissenting vote, they still made Mayor O’Leary one of their favorites for Election Day for the City Council, April 10.
Michelle Mayans, Creative Director of Kid Scoop Media, reported the following:
“The students in Ms. Gilbert-Rolfe's classes voted in a straw poll and chose Jim Clarke, Mehaul O'Leary, Meghan Sahli-Wells and Andy Weissman.
“They want to emphasize that they heard from each candidate only briefly and STRONGLY recommend that voters attend a forum, do some research, go to their websites and find out for themselves. Then be sure to vote.”
Returning to the state’s explosive Prop.8 subject, Mr. O’Leary firmly repeated what he said last Wednesday:
“It is not a local issue.
“It would not be something that comes in front of the Council. We have to stick to the issues that come in front of us. The problem with our national politics is that people tend to be voting based on the big issue items, not on who is the right candidate for the position being elected to.”
But what about overturning Prop. 8?
“I refuse to deal with that,” Mr. O’Leary said, “and I won’t get into it.”
What if it came down to Yes or No on overturning Prop.8?
“It won’t. I won’t have to deal with that. I refuse to get into national politics issues. If somebody is going to vote for a candidate for the City of Culver City City Council, based on big-picture items that never will come before the Council, they are voting in the wrong election.”
