Whether he wins or doesn’t tomorrow, Scott Malsin never will be forgotten as long as there is a sitting City Council in Culver City.
Long after Harry Culver’s name is banished to an occasional insert in history books, the polarizing 51-year-old Mr. Malsin will be a bullseye historical figure for Culver City schoolchildren.
An apparent record number of absentee ballots already are in City Hall, more than 2,000, one-third of the total vote count in recent years. Mr. Malsin’s supporters would say this is a tribute to him. His recently aroused opponents would say it is because he has unfairly stirred their ire.
With President Obama driving class warfare with a huge hammer and a baby nail before his campaign audiences, it is impossible to determine whether voters are mad at Mr. Malsin for circumventing the health benefits system at City Hall or for accumulating more individual worth than voters had suspected.
Bullet voting swung the School Board election five months ago. This wretched gimmick is on many minds going into tomorrow.
Here is a closer look at the candidates for three full-term Council seats and a fourth seat for two years, the remainder of Mr. Malsin’s term:
Jim Clarke – I have met surprising resistance when describing this 63-year-old City Hall newcomer as a natural for the Council. “Despite decades of state and federal experience,” people tell me, “he doesn’t know Culver City well enough and he isn’t nearly as recognizable to voters.” I hope they are wrong. He has lived here since the 1970s. If he is excitable, it is only when cornered by a gorilla on steroids with rabies in a windowless telephone booth in the center of the Mojave. At midnight. Mature, measured, disciplined, politically wired, comprehensively informed – what else do you desire in a politician? That he make your car payments? He knows the uncomplicated issues (fiscal, fiscal, fiscal), and he knows more people than anyone except Andy Weissman. He has not revealed a fault in four months of campaigning.
Mehaul O’Leary – I think of the scales of justice when assessing the Mayor. On the positive hand, there is his lifetime supply of authentic enthusiasm for whatever he is doing at the moment, operating his Irish pub, mingling with his favorite persons at the Senior Center, representing the city at an event. You could watch a video of that side all day and never grow bored. When he reaches the dais, though, he seems less sure. He sometimes needs to shoehorn a more deliberate personality into his seat. His most recognizable observation is, “I want to hear what others have to say.” This is not the admonition of a general to his troops, or even of a leader among equals. Sometimes, you want a take-charge person, and this is not his gift. When you balance that against his global vigor for every task he undertakes, buffeted by his golden personality, it’s hard to resist an affirmative vote.
Meghan Sahli-Wells – The first time she ran two years ago, she was seen strictly as a community activist, a slightly diplomatic way of saying too light to be an elected City Hall politician. She lost by less than three dozen votes to Jeff Cooper. He has been far quieter, far less intrusive than she would have been. Two years on, doubts of her capabilities – could they be traced to sexists? – have vaporized. She has considerably more seasoning, maturity, confidence and restraint than during her first run. Intense care for the environment has been her main vehicle to Culver City prominence. Observers ask if she will be inclined to keep her passion for all things environmental at a level of other issues. In all, the disappointing setback probably was a blessing.
Andy Weissman – When a popular political/civic personality has been in the top tier of effective hometown players as long as he has, his single vulnerability is taking for granted or being taken that way. That would be wrong. He is so effortlessly meticulous and careful and observant in his daily life that an ailing fly in the dust-laden corner of a ceiling in a room two doors away, does not elude his focus. In some unassailable character aspects, he could be a twin to Mr. Clarke – permanently measured, disciplined, uncommonly sensitive, well-researched, insightful, a just-right sense of humor. The difference between the two gentlemen is he did it first. He turns 62 this month, and the only question is whether his statue should be erected on the southeastern or northwestern corner.
Stephen Murray – Perhaps Malcolm Gladwell’s next book will at least lead off with this freshly-scrubbed freshman candidate who could be picked out from a crowd of two million.He is different. Some of his political colleagues critically have cast him as “more ‘new’ than ‘candidate.’” They, and others, have found him too offbeat. They said if he had lived in the 1950s, his name might have been Kerouac. I find him to have star quality. He isn’t ready for City Hall this round. But don’t go away. Check back in ’14. Irresistible promise.
Scott Malsin – If the campaign debate had centered on his six-year City Council record instead of his credit cards, this would be a formful race. He would be favored, if not a cinch, to finish in the top three. Feelings about him did not harden until his 700 filing form came to public notice last month. He could have saved himself some – definitely not all – of this resistance/fury/envy if he had calmly announced last summer he was stepping down from the Council to shield his benefits. By allowing it to become a six-month soap opera, he softened his re-election chances. But this is like arguing whether you will support a Councilman with brown hair over one with black hair. At bottom, he is a blue-ribbon Councilman, right for the time and right for the town.
