What’s next?
What’s certain is that Lauren Meister will join John D’Amico and John Duran on the West Hollywood City Council. Whether the other open seat will be filled by challenger Lindsey Horvath or by Councilmember John Heilman won’t be known for a few days now.
Then there’s the June 2 special election to fill the seat vacated by Jeffrey Prang. Heilman told WEHOville that if he doesn’t win in yesterday’s race he will not run again in June. But other candidates are lining up. Heidi Shink, a writer and member of the city’s Planning Commission, and Cole Ettman, who manages a law firm and sits on the city’s Public Facilities Commission, have declared themselves candidates in that race. Among the other candidates who lost in yesterday’s election, Larry Block has requested the forms necessary to be on the June 2 ballot. James “Duke” Mason, a writer and actor, hasn’t yet decided whether he will run. Neither has Joe Guardarrara, an attorney and former city Planning Commissioner who came in fifth in yesterday’s election. Guardarrama told WEHOville that he is considering all of his options. Meanwhile, Max Geschwind is putting out the word that he might run. Geschwind, who turned 18 in December, has sent out emails to friends and acquaintances soliciting their thoughts on him as a candidate. “Adding a fresh, young voice to the Council would provide a new perspective and add to the diversity of thought on the Council,” Geschwind writes. Mason, 22, who was criticized by some for being too young to serve on the Council, might not be the youngest on the June ballot.
Geschwind is a recent graduate of Fairfax High School who has worked as an intern for the City Council and the city’s book fair. He also has been employed as a a recreation aide in the city’s Recreation Division and has volunteered on several City Council election campaigns. He also directed a 10-minute documentary titled “The Milk Effect” about the legacy of gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk.
All candidates for the June 2 election must file the required paperwork with the City Clerk by the end of the day Friday. So stay tuned.
Duran is not necessarily the next Mayor. Several elections ago Sal Guarriello was due to be Mayor and side stepped it due to his wife’s health. J. Heilman continued (repeated) as Mayor. Should D’Amico do that? No. It would mean that Duran would delay his Mayorship a year (as planned) so he could be Da Mayor facing re-election. Make Duran mayor now. Then follow with Lindsey (she has some seniority) then Lauren then D’Amico again, just in time for his next run for council. It would remove any bump the “Mayor” title brings to Duran in two years. He will… Read more »
Nice speculative theory, Shawn. Maybe the more simple theory Is the correct one: voters saw Larry’s message and campaign and just didn’t want him in office.
In the end Mr Block got 1032 votes. That’s over a thousand residents who voted for him. He wasn’t financed by big money, PACS or independent expenditure committees. Or funded by out of town real estate speculators. To me that speaks volumes about where his support came from. And the significant achievement in getting over one thousand votes, the old school way, talking to residents, going to meetings and being accessible. He didn’t have the money to flood our mail boxes with slick mailers that the other candidates could. Larry’s focus on the two block #lgbt boys town is just… Read more »
Oh Gregel – now you’re just being silly: not wanting smart people on the city council because the city is small. 🙂 Maybe you can write in Forrest Gump (btw a fictional character) or Sarah Palin.
Oh, Steve. Again, please look at the other candidates who crowded the field. “Sophistication”? You’re projecting there. This City is 1.9 miles and has less than 50,000 people. It’s smaller than Monaco for Pete’s sake.
Gregel, it isn’t possible at this point to determine whether or not Block would be a career politician as he’s never been elected anything. In addition, my critiques of Block are based on his meandring and rambling comments in various articles on this website. I have also read his articles and columns, and I have found that his lack of sophistication in his thought process is not something I would like to see in an elected official.
Steve – haters gotta hate, huh? No one else to throw under the bus? Where is your contempt for Tristan Schukraft or James Duke Mason, among others, running and taking votes away from more qualified candidates? Give Block a break, I’d take him over Horvath any day. At least he’s not more concerned about a career politician track than contributing to the welfare of the city.
Nicholas – the numbers do get complicated when each voter can use up to three votes. There’s no way to know if each voter did but the hard cold number is that Block’s percentage of votes lags far behind the candidates who received more than he did. I may not have a Ph.D in math but 976 is a smaller number than the 1500-1600 votes the candidate above him got. Also consider how active Larry was in campaigning as compared to the tier above him and below him. He may have well have “phoned in” his campaign and got the… Read more »
Steve Lamson can you please explain your assertion that 90% of the voters rejected Block. Even if you include all the provisional and mail-in ballots, there were still only about 4,000 voters who participated Tuesday’s election. The unofficial results currently show Block receiving 976 votes. This means about 1 out of 4 voters had Block as one of their choices for the 3 open seats. I wouldn’t exactly call it overwhelming support for Block, but its certainly a far cry from 90% rejection of Block and not terrible when you consider how many candidates, particularly non-incumbent challengers, were on the… Read more »
@dimitri hell yes!
There should be TWO seats vacant for the June election. Prang’s AND Duran’s. I think D’Amico, Heilman & Land should have asked for his resignation on Monday night (especially since he didn’t even show up). Both of those seats are up for re election at the same time anyway. All of his misconduct happened on their watch. There’s more than enough reason for Duran to leave, and it should be done before the deadline to submit papers for candidacy tomorrow. Now that it’s official and Heilman will not be on the council to fulfill the Mayor position this next coming… Read more »
I support Block running again, too, both for the reasons that Shawn Thompson stated as well as what Tom Smart stated (about the developer-backed candidates). As Shawn states, he’s active in community issues – not just along SMB, Larrabee Grouch, but also with the senior community and the disabled community. As Tom says, a developer-backed candidate will obviously side with developer issues. Block is not developer-backed at all. In fact, he’s only backed by community residents. He gives concrete and implementable ideas to work out issues that directly effect the people of West Hollywood. I do hope more people catch… Read more »