First of two parts.
Miles of smiles and inches of frowns were found in last night’s post-City Council election parties just as Scott Wyant was planting his feet after the results tumbled in at Rush Street, a football field away from City Hall.
Laid-back is the tek king’s reputation.
A sharp-edged message, however, was welling inside Culver City’s best-known daily surfer, fighting to break free.
He did not overtly say he was stung by the way the election script of others played out. Doubt, though, was invisible.
How could Democrats treat a lifelong fellow Democrat with such disdain? he wondered.
Right after a heartfelt commercial from the businessman who finished fifth in a field of seven.
“I woke up this morning in Paradise,” Mr. Wyant said this morning. “I live in Culver City. I am fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood (Carlson Park) of a bunch of people who are really cool. And with a happy wife and me. Now I am on way way to drive down and jump in the ocean,” which the blond-haired surfer does four or five mornings a week.
Here is the main event:
“My hands are clean,” the affable Mr. Wyant said, returning to election mode.
“We ran a clean campaign to make this a better town for everybody.
“I never said a harsh word or an untrue word about anyone I was running against.”
Now Mr. Wyant’s message was breathing, becoming more obvious, swinging back at those with something resembling soot on their hands.
“I woke up this morning, and my hands were clean,” he said.
“I ended up running against the Democratic party machine, unfortunately.
“That is what all the evidence seems to indicate.”
Mr. Wyant was alluding to the left-wing Democrats of Culver City blasting him for being a centrist,
He is baffled, hurt.
“I am a lifelong Democrat,” a vigorous young backer of Clean Gene McCarthy at the 1968 Democratic Convention. “And I never looked back.”
He chuckled.
Mr. Wyant said his historic creds are available for inspection.
“I marched in the very first Aids walk. I am friends with the guy who started the Aids walk in California.”
(To be continued)
I’m a Culver City voter who personally knows (and loves) two of yesterday’s candidates (Small and Sahli-Wells), so they had two of my votes locked up, but I’d never met any of the others, so my third vote was genuinely up in the air. My own decision-making process came down to this: who is the most progressive candidate left in the field (besides the two aforementioned)? Not “who’s been a member of the Democratic Party the longest?” Not “who supported Eugene McCarthy in 1968?” But who, now and today, happens to be the most progressive candidate in this race, whose values and preferences most closely reflect my own?
Scott Wyant’s endorsements from the Culver City Chamber of Commerce, the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles did not, to me, scream out “proud, avid progressive”. So I voted for Daniel Lee.
Scott Wyant may be a wonderful person. Probably he is! Like I said, I’ve never personally met him (or Lee, or any of the others outside of Megan or Thomas). But– at least for this one voter– Scott’s “I’ve been a registered Democrat longer than that guy!” argument was entirely unpersuasive. “Long-tenured party member” does not necessarily equal “unabashed progressive”… especially when the guy’s proudly carrying the banner of the Chamber of Commerce.
Again, though, that’s just me, and I’m just one Culver City voter. Of course many of my neighbors and friends felt differently, and that’s great! Yay, democracy!
Meighan’s explanation reflects my sentiments as well. It is clear to me that this election offered a clear choice between the influence of the Culver City Chamber of Commerce (often described as an non-elected sixth seat on the City Council) and progressive voices concerned about issues ranging from renter protection, housing, residential control over parking, and the environment, to name just a few. I hope that the message sent by voters now resonates with the remaining members of the City Council in ways that will motivate them to pay attention to voter sentiments beyond the voice of the Chamber of Commerce.