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Pooling their energy and support for School Board candidate Steve Levin, the best-dressed fellow in the center with his wife. Photo, Kara Franz.
With the filing deadline approaching and four candidates for three School Board seats in November, the newest horse in the field, Steve Levin, ignited his campaign before a robust turnout at a private home in Culver Crest.
“Fun” and “rocket scientist” seldom appear in the same sentence, but then Mr. Levin’s maiden voyage into politics promises to be a new kind of breeze.
They don’t train funny people at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mr. Levin’s longtime employer.
In the tradition of candidates, he said that he needed the help of everyone in the crowd, from younger to the more mature, and he pledged that he would lead a fun campaign between the end of July and the first Tuesday in November.
“We are all going to need to work together,” he sought to emphasize. “But it’s fun to do something worthwhile together.”
Intending to be inclusive, Mr. Levin looked into as many pairs of eyes as he could count and said, “We can work together to improve our already good schools.”
Turning toward the skills that he brings as an established scientist in his field, “I have some experience from my work in dealing with bureaucracies and getting things done,” he said. “I have worked with groups of people as a team, trying to bring consensus.”
And this may have been Mr. Levin’s strongest assertion of the afternoon:
“I try to bring a pragmatic, problem-solving approach to matters.
“I don’t get too bogged down in ideologies and personalities. That’s what we need on the Board. And of course I am a parent, so I have that, too.”
For nearly three hours, the soft-spoken Mr. Levin stood in the center ring, as the only focus of attention.
An unaccustomed feeling?
“I do teacher training, teaching science to teachers, and I also do public events associated with work. In that sense, I am used to being the center of attention.”
Then came the however:
“It was a little bit of a new experience having people constantly taking pictures of me.”
How did that feel?
“It was okay,” Mr. Levin said.
“It will take a little getting used to.”
