Re “Forget Waldo. Where’s Vernon? Mielke Letter Leaves Him Out”

[img]1|right|Ari Noonan||no_popup[/img]Suddenly the once rosy School Board campaign – 13 days out – is souring faster than an elderly lady plumped into a rocking chair in a darkened room, desperately hoping to polish her pale pallor.

The previously unexplained subtraction of endorsed Vernon Taylor from a candidate recommendation letter written by the president of the Teachers Union and sent out to voters is the new No. 1 negative bombshell.

When the newspaper informed Mr. Taylor of his unexplained elimination from the David Mielke letter, he was shocked into wordlessness.

However, late this afternoon, Mr. Mielke issued the following explanation to the newspaper:

“We've been asked by the press why Vernon Taylor was ‘left out’ of one of the direct mail pieces sent out by the Culver City Federation of Teachers.

“We have endorsed, and are supporting, three candidates for School Board:  Karlo Silbiger, Claudia Vizcarra and Vernon Taylor.

“As a small local union with limited resources, we get help in our campaigns from neighboring unions and labor organizations.  One organization that is helping us is the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.  As a condition of that support, though, the County Fed insists on interviewing and endorsing candidates.  They do not always endorse all the candidates we endorse.

“Karlo and Claudia were endorsed by the County Fed. Vernon was not.

“As a result, we had a decision to make: Do we say ‘no thanks’ to the County Fed for their offer of support? Or do we use their help, even though it helps just two of our candidates.  We chose the latter.

“We are still enthusiastic in our support for Karlo Silbiger, Claudia Vizcarra AND Vernon Taylor.

“Hope this clears up the issue.”

Will that wash with voters and friends?

Probably too early to tell.

[img]2100|right|Vernon Taylor||no_popup[/img]On the sheer embarrassment scale, this ranks with parents exploiting the height of favoritism.

Departing for a long-awaited family reunion, the parents strategically summon two of their three children. Swiftly, they load them swiftly into the car and speed away before No. 3 child learns he has been inexplicably abandoned.

This is what happened today to Mr. Taylor, striving to be the first male black candidate elected to office in Culver City.

Sounding too stunned to comment this morning, he indicated he had no advance warning that he was being unceremoniously overboarded.

Mr. Mielke’s explanation above notwithstanding, to recipients of the letter there can be no question this was a planned, deliberate omission of Mr. Taylor.

A colorful magnet included with the Mielke letter pointedly contained only the names of the other two Teachers Union endorsees.

In the minds of the letter’s recipents and others, the Teachers Union’s heavily publicized endorsement of three candidates in late August has been clumsily, secretly altered just ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

Will this affect, stain, the outcome, souring an election season jammed with more fun than any in recent years?

Will Taylor supporters revolt?

Should they?

The Taylor fiasco supplants the old villainous No. 1.

That would be a carefully crafted, dressed-up endorsement letter from United Teachers Los Angeles to Culver City members/voters – revealed here Monday – that mainly was intended as a takedown of United Parents of Culver City.