In a formful, thinly supported vote that provided a decidedly undramatic climax to a long-winded City Council campaign, Culver City chose Andy Weissman, Christopher Armenta and Mehaul O’Leary yesterday to replace Alan Corlin, Carol Gross and Steve Rose.
Measure W, the generally undisputed utility users’ tax whose presence on the ballot was described as a language update, passed overwhelmingly, as anticipated, 3,333 to 973, or 77 percent to 22.5 percent.
Dep. City Clerk Ela Valladares was prescient in her forecasting.
A wispy 20.2 percent of registered voters declared their opinions, counting absentees.
Ms. Valladares predicted 20 to 23 percent.
But only 12.5 percent of voters bothered to go to the polls yesterday, which was a bum adventure for the people running the precinct at Rotary Plaza, the last polling place to open and, by an hour, the slowest to report.
The Comparable Margins
Mr. Weissman, with 2,768 votes, finished a fairly comfortable 387 votes in front of Mr. Armenta, who, in turn, was a solid 407 votes ahead of Mr. O’Leary.
Jeff Cooper and Loni Anderson, well back in fourth and fifth places, were separated by just 61 votes.
Nobody in the bottom four broke 1,000 votes.
With an estimated “few dozen” absentee and provisional ballots still to be tabulated,, here is how they finished:
Andy Weissman — 2,768, 22.7%
Christopher Armenta — 2,381, 19.5%
Mehaul O’Leary — 1,974, 16.1%
Jeff Cooper — 1,603, 13.1%
Loni Anderson — 1,539, 12.6%
Dr. Luther Henderson — 949, 7.7 %
Cary Anderson — 394, 3.2%
Randy Scott Leslie — 316, 2.5%
Gary Russell — 269, 2.2%
No perspiration.
No tears.
No surprises.
Disappointment, of course, among the bottom six, but no stunning setbacks.
No theatrics.
The chilled ending was as cold as cement. The order of finish was established early in the counting and scarcely varied.
The Crest of the Mountain
This was the 4th of July of their lives for three very different, and thrilled, candidates who responded in disparate ways.
All are longtime residents with varying degrees of emerging visibility.
It could be argued they finished in the order of their street recognizability.
In typically stormy Council Chambers, this is not merely a changing of the guard but an upheaval of the body that runs Culver City.
Gone are three faces who became household fixtures during their eight years on the dais.
Sizing ‘em up
In their well-worn chairs will sit one of the most civically prominent figures ever to be elevated to the Council, Mr. Weissman, a longtime man on the periphery of the Council, Mr. Armenta, now the erstwhile City Clerk, and a business owner who has become ubiquitous in the last two years, Mr. O’Leary.
Mr. Weissman, 57 years old, Mr. Armenta and Mr. O’Leary, in their early 40s, are as morning-dew fresh, shiny-look and starkly distinct from each other as strangers from three separate continents.
From Three Directions
Mr. Armenta from the left, Mr. O’Leary from the center, and Mr. Weissman, a nominal Democrat who presents in a non-partisan manner, are certain to sharply alter the profile of the present pugnacious City Council.
At the Culver Hotel last night, surrounded by serenading barbershoppers from Santa Monica, the Oceanaires, and rows of triumphant well-wishers, Mr. Weissman reacted with statesmanlike behavior.
Dapper, composed, speaking a stern but accessible blend of the language of the people and the vernacular of City Hall, n insider with toothpaste-fresh breath.
Down the block at the Grand Casino bakery on Main Street, Mr. Armenta — who will rival Mr. Weissman as the most strikingly articulate new Councilman — laid out a progressive agenda that he emphasized was independently reached. But it carried Gary Silbiger-like overtones, and for the first time since ’02, Mr. Silbiger appears to have one genuine ally on the dais.
Personal and Personable
Westward down Washington Boulevard, at the venerable Elks Lodge, as the Irishman’s supporters always have known, it was intensely, Irishly personal with Mr. O’Leary.
He reflected on his stingingly disappointing defeat by about 600 votes two years ago, and his resolve to flip the next election try right side up.
When Irish eyes are smiling, fine.
But when they aren’t, the Dublin native will bring passion and emotion by the bucket-ful into Council Chambers.
Philosophically, the new majority will be a lively, untested mix whose chemistry remains to be judged.
Mad or Brilliant Scientists?
Will the laboratory blow up or will it remind the community of mad scientists at work in a good way?
Led by one of Mr. Weissman’s central campaign promises — to either introduce or restore civility —the new majority at least hopes to upgrade the querulous attitude of a five-member Council that has been almost intact for the last six years.
Third-year Councilman Scott Malsin toured Downtown in the late evening.
He visited the victory party of his friend Mr. Weissman, by 75 miles the most seasoned and most recognizable figure in the 9-candidate field, and the celebration of Mr. Armenta’s win.
Leadership Role Open
And then Mr. Malsin told the newspaper he was looking forward to working with the new men.
Some expect Mr. Malsin, a dynamic and imaginative thinker, to assume a kind of graybeard leadership role on the Council, but that is as far from a cinch as the weather in the Hayden Tract three years from this afternoon.
A splendid moment it was, at a little before 11 last night, when the hour of denouement finally arrived.
Frances Talbott White of the League of Women Voters, the entertaining mistress of ceremonies in Council Chambers, which was turned into the Counting Room for one night, announced to a small, hardy gathering, the vote totals from the 13th and final precinct, the Rotary Plazxa.
The new majority will be installed and the old triumvirate will reluctantly depart two weeks from Monday, at the Council meeting of April 28.
