[img]1|left|||no_popup[/img]After finishing last yesterday in the Culver City Bad Posture Contest — is that good or bad? — I drove by School District headquarters, and I was pleasantly surprised that no National Guard shock troops were posted out front.
You could slice an elephant tusk in half with the slew of ugly broken-glass barbs that have been slung by and at candidates in the closing hours of the School Board race.
Election Day on Tuesday remains a free-for-all among the 6 of them, and the trajectory has swung in so many directions the last 100 days that I would not bet against anybody.
Since the campaign gate swung open in July, even persons who have been spelling school with one “o” have been saying that Karlo Silbiger was such a cinch that, like President McKinley 109 years ago, he could have campaigned from his front porch.
Maybe.
Probably.
Even if true, two other seats are open. I am not sure there is an inch difference among Kathy Paspalis, Gary Abrams, Alan Elmont, Patricia Siever and Robert Zirgulis. If I were any of them, I would spend more time praying than campaigning between now and when the polls open.
Silbiger’s Perception
After witnessing the accusatory torches that have been winged at candidates the last several weeks, it is hard to believe that Culver City, previously named Sleepy Hollow, has a reputation for stifling a yawn when election is mentioned.
Mature looking and mature acting even though he is the baby of the field, Mr. Silbiger’s projected role as patriarch of a field of mostly new faces never has been challenged.
That is another way of saying I don’t think his perceived lead ever has been threatened.
I suspected Mr. Silbiger held a long enough lead that when I asked him for a forecast for Tuesday night he would confidently predict that he would be joined by two people and possibly identify them.
He demurred.
“Here is what I would like to tell people,” Mr. Silbiger said. “I am hopeful. I have done all I can. We have walked every single house in the city. We have made calls-through (all likely voters) once. We will make the calls again this weekend, and we have sent 2 mailings.
“I am confident we have done all we can.”
A Time for Diplomacy
Yes, Mr. Silbiger, but do you feel confident of winning?
“The response, overall, has been pretty positive,” he said. “A low-turnout election? You never know what the turnout is going to be. We will be working until the last moment, hoping to pull out every last voter we can.”
Mr. Silbiger, do you want to guess what two people likely will join you on the refurbished School Board.
He laughed, which, of course, was a proper response. “Tuesday night, I will,” he said.
If one person has shown himself willing to put his feet where others fear to tread, it is Mr. Zirgulis, who must share that honor with Mr. Abrams.
Mr. Z did not disappoint this time. “If there is a large voter turnout, I am going to win,” said the man who started the race as the least or next to least known candidate.
Who will join Mr. Z?
“For the other two seats,” he grinned from beneath of mop of gray hair, “it will be a tossup because The Machine will not have enough votes.
“If there is a large turnout, I will win, and you will see some surprises. If there is a small turnout, The Machine will do well.”
The Machine?
Mr. Z, like his predecessor at the microphone, looked back at me as if to say, “How could you ask such a dumb question?”
Years of practice, my boy, many years of practice.
And then he responded: “Alan Corlin’s Machine.” He chuckled heartily.
Mr. Elmont didn’t hesitate to predict a winner. “Whoever gets the most votes,” he said.
Is he confident about winning in his second try for the Board? “Hopefully confident,” he said. “Until the ballots are counted, though, I have no insight on the order of finish.”
