At 8:30 p.m., Candidate Silbiger, in a lighthearted mood, said he felt good, as he has for the past year. Winning the absentee vote was a favorable sign, he said.
Probed for the calculus he employed to develop a winning strategy for a second term, Mr. Silbiger cracked: “We tried to get one hundred percent of the vote.”
The Most Encouraging Event of the Campaign? “We were able to set up a really strong volunteer organization from a broad spectrum of the community. You never know for sure, as a campaign develops, how much volunteer help there will be. But it worked out well, and that is why we are winning.”
Regarding his band of loyal backers: “A lot of people like the direction that I give to the City Council. But I don’t want to limit the support to my so-called base. I have tried to expand it. As you see at Council meetings, many people want certain things done. I try to be their voice.”
Mim Shapiro, one of Blair Hills’ senior activists, was an early arrival with her husband of fifty-nine years and ten months, Hank.
Surprisingly, she said she did not meet the Vice Mayor until the late campaign. “I was drawn to Gary,” she said, “because I like his attitude about opening access up so the public can be part of things they need to be part of.”
Anxious for a change in faces on the City Council, Mrs. Shapiro said in that spirit she voted for Scott Malsin for the other open seat.
Mr. Silbiger’s most beribboned supporter was Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles). His backing flows from meeting the candidate’s wife Barbara Honig twenty years ago. Mr. Ridley-Thomas and Ms. Honig worked on a campaign for higher standards in public education with her. “If he’s good enough for Barbara, he is good enough for me,” Mr. Ridley-Thomas said of the candidate.
Jim and Brenda Berland, longtime activists and friends of the Silbigers, sounded confident of victory after the early returns. Mr. Berland said he would have been “more pleased” with the Councilman’s first term if there had been “more openness by the Council to Gary’s point of view.” Regarding numerous four to one votes, he said, “Partly that reflected Gary and the Council getting to know each other.” Developing the open-spaces park inside the Baldwin Hills Conservancy and the blossoming of Ballona Creek into a recreation area, Mr. Berland hopes, are high on a second-term agenda.
Democratic Club member Greg Valtierra, with his smiling family in tow: “Gary Silbiger represents ideals that are necessary in a leader. He is open to listening to the community, and to Progressive ideals. He is strong on the environment, which is important for Culver City.”
Tony Pappas, standing at the serving counter with former Councilman Richard Marcus, said he was supporting Mr. Silbiger “in spite of my opposition to Measure V (Charter Reform). To be honest with you, Gary is the lesser evil.”
Mr. Marcus, possibly the most jovial celebrant, predicted victory for Mr. Silbiger and Mr. Malsin.
On the way out of Club Tropical, Gary Mandell, The Thin Man behind the Summer Sunset Concert Series in the slate gray Courtyard of City Hall, was coming to root. Quid pro quo. Since Mr. Silbiger has supported his efforts to remain at the helm of the series, Mr. Mandell said now it was his turn.
Malsin Headquarters
The first face forward belonged to former Mayor Ed Wolkowitz, often bursting with opinions:
“If Culver City voters are as intelligent as I think they are, Scott will win.”
Who would Mr. Wolkowitz like to see occupying the other available Council chair?
“That is a close one,” he said. “I think it will be Gary because incumbents generally have an advantage.
“Mehaul concerned me during the course of his campaign. A lot of things he said really bothered me, and I won’t even mention the golf carts issue.”
Making the rounds as if they were kids again, Hank and Mim Shapiro made more than a cameo appearance at the Malsin party. Mrs. S’s views are well-known, Mr. S’s less so. Nodding agreement in his wife’s direction, he said firmly, “We are together on Scott, Gary and Measure V.”
Business owner Allan Goldman: “Scott is pro-active for the community. He has a good view of the future and insights on problems that arise on a daily basis. I also like his attitude toward the fact we are in the middle of Los Angeles. You can’t run and hide from it. You have to participate.”
Mr. Goldman said that Mr. Silbiger was his choice for the other Council seat. “He is someone we know, and he speaks for a large part of the public. I don’t always agree with him, but he deserves a second term.”
Fox Hills CPA Cy K.Pierce backed Mr. Malsin because “he offers the kind of fresh insight and new views that we need. We have a lot of people on the Council who seem to be constantly fighting with each other. Maybe Scott will be one who brings cohesiveness to the Council. Twenty years ago, when I was more involved,the City Council got along. They are divisive now, it seems to me, because of their egos. It was not always like this.”
Councilman Steve Rose, Mr. Malsin’s co-chair: “Scott is the most qualified candidate in the field. He understands the entire community, and he understands numbers, which the other two candidates don’t.”
Mr. Rose said he did not mark his ballot for a second candidate. “The other two proved themselves unworthy of my vote,” he said.
Joseph Rosendo, the leading Herbert Street activist, who also was present at the birth of the campaign in January, on the first day for filing:
“I have some professional reasons for backing Scott. He lives on the Westside of Culver City. For many years, we have been left out of the picture when Culver City makes decisions on improvements.
“Scott has been involved in the whole visioning for the Westside, from the beginning. I know he will be on the same page as those of us who live on the Westside. He will make us part of the success of the rest of the city.”
Of his second choice, Mr. Rosendo said: “I have had problems with Gary Silbiger over the years he has been in office. Generally I think his intentions are good, and his heart is in the right place. He said in his campaign he wants to unite all of Culver City. I think that is true. I shook my head at some of the decisions he has made, and at some of the things he has chosen to support.”
O’Leary Headquarters
Already resembling a handsome elder statesman, the retiring Mayor Albert Vera, with his wife Ursula nearby, was engaged in a quiet conversation near the door of the Elks Club.
Most conversation in the room was necessarily sotte voce because it just had become evident Mr. O’Leary was not going to qualify.
The Most Talked About Personality in the campaign paused while assaying his own feelings.
With a sui generis splash, he endorsed Mr. O’Leary last month.
How well, or how little, it worked is being debated.
“I feel good, but the evening is over,” Mr. Vera said as the clock struck out in concert with Mr. O’Leary’s vanquished chances by 9:30.
Mr. Vera insisted nothing felt strange or unusual about being a (reluctant) non-candidate after three terms on the City Council.
“Let me put it this way,” he said. “Sometimes you cannot control destiny. Destiny always is what you make out of it.
“Absolutely, I will be back in two years. You can count on it.
“You know, I had to make a very tough decision, between my wife and politics. I weighed the fact that I will still be active, extremely active — for Culver City. Not for the politicians but for Culver City.”
The acerbity that has sprung up periodically between and among members of the City Council may become bolder now that Mr. Vera no longer is harnessed by the constraints of political office.
In the meantime, Mr. Vera promised to be a pain to the City Council until he is one of them again. Don’t look for him at Monday night City Council meetings. “I will work behind the scenes,” he said.
One of his final pledges in office a month ago was to secure a major parking facility, twenty-five to thirty acres, to accommodate Recreational Vehicles that will not be allowed to be parked on city streets.
In a sense, said Mr. Vera, it is not important, only technical, whether he achieves this before or after stepping down on April 24.
“To some people, I always will be Mayor Vera,” he said.
Across the room, near the stage, a tall, striking blonde who did not look old enough to be Mr.O’Leary’s mother, Eileen, was holding court.
Completely at ease twenty-four hours after a Dublin-to-Culver City flight to be with her newlywed son on the occasion of his first try at elected office, she soon took charge.
In no way a violet who shrinks, Mrs. O’L is a cement-solid veteran of political wars in Dublin.
Shortly after landing, mother and son visited Rite-Aid. Mom said she needed a hairbrush and a blow dryer. On the way, his mother wanted to know why campaign literature still was in his car, far from curious, or incurious, eyes.
“They are no good in your car,” she said. “Give me them.”
Next thing Mr. O’Leary knows, he looks up and there, in the middle of Rite-Aid is his mother with an armload of publicity.
“This is my son,” she was telling all customers who would listen. “He’s forty. He’s a good boy.”
Said her son: “I don’t know where she got the energy to do this, just getting off a ten-hour flight. By her clock, it was two o’clock in the morning.”
On Election Day, she was driven over to the Farmers Market on Main Street. In her desire to distribute O’Leary literature to everybody who passed, she even handed pieces to Mr. Silbiger.
As for his first election, it was a solemn Mr. O’Leary, the setback freshly settling in, who said, “I didn’t know what to expect.”
The candidate reflected on a tough rookie lesson, the kind of not-quite-real-life scenario that nearly all first-time candidates undergo — the notion everything is all right when it isn’t.
But who is going to tell the boss?
“When you are involved in a campaign,” Mr. O’Leary said, “and you get feedback from your supporters, you get on a high.
“You believe it’s possible, that everything is going to go your way.
“In local elections sometimes, the intentions are there, but not everyone gets to the polls.
“I am a little disheartened. I thought I would have won local areas. People were very impassioned about specific issues. But I just don’t see it in the results.”
How will make a U-turn in his fortunes?
“Longevity is the key,” said Mr.O’Leary. “There are people who believe I don’t know enough. I will do it again to prove I do — in two years, four years, six years. I don’t care how long it takes.
“During the next two years, I will make sure I am seen where I am supposed to be seen.
“I have looked at how the other candidates portrayed themselves.
“I have been a little more shy at telling people what I have done for the community.
“See, I thought it was not necessary to say that about yourself. People will know about me and what I have done, I thought.
“But I guess to get into the political arena, you have to spell out your achievements.”
The hour still was early, but it was later than he thought, admitted Mr.O’Leary.
