Do endorsements matter? At least two of the four candidates in the June 2 election for the West Hollywood City Council race seem to think so.
Heidi Shink and John Heilman have managed to amass a number of prominent endorsements. Cole Ettman has secured two and Larry Block none.
When it comes to celebrities, Heidi Shink has Cher, who hosted a benefit for her on April 19, and John Heilman has Belinda Carlisle, who will be a special guest at a fundraiser on May 8. Carlisle is the mother of Duke Mason, an unsuccessful candidate in the March 3 Council race who is backing Heilman.
Among elected officials, Heilman has L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl and former Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, State Sen. Ben Allen, state Assembly member Richard Bloom and former Assembly member Jackie Goldberg, West Hollywood Mayor Lindsey Horvath and WeHo Councilmember John Duran and former Councilmember Abbe Land.
Shink has U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, L.A. City Councilmember Paul Koretz and West Hollywood City Councilmember John D’Amico.
Cole Ettman has L.A. City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield and former West Hollywood City Councilmember Steve Martin.
Heilman also has the endorsement of the Beverly Hills / West Hollywood Democratic Club, the Miracle Mile Democratic Club, the Coalition for Economic Survival, the L.A. League of Conservation Voters and Equality California, which also endorsed Shink. Ettman has the endorsement of the L.A. County Young Democrats and shares with Heilman the endorsement of Democrats for Israel.
The Heilman and Shink campaigns are both making a special appeal to female voters (Shink supporter John D’Amico has said he looks forward to having three women on the five-member Council). Heilman has the endorsement of the California chapter of the National Organization for Women. On May 5 a fundraiser for his campaign will be hosted by prominent local women. A mailer promoting it lists as supporters Horvath and Land and other prominent local women such as Kate Bartolo, Daphne Dennis, Barbara Meltzer and Ivy Bottini.
Shame on Cher! from your weho boys! Cher should write a check to all of us gay boys that made her career! What a slap in the face! Cher must do the right thing and insist that Heidi return our money from that awful event! I am ready to start a boycott “Cher” campaign, over that event! Thank you Jeffrey Prang for your irresponsible decision to have Heidi run for your seat! I am not supporting Heidi at all for stealing from us!
Over the past four years John D’Amico has fought against the democratic party and clubs. Heidi shink as allied with D’Amico and Lauren Meister, both registered democrats by name only and both have Republican Deputies. Heidi Shink has publicly agreed to caucus with D’Amico and Meister. Shink does not deserve one Democratic Party endorsement. Heidi has been a non-stop tour for 2 years for D’Amico.
Perhaps Heidi should put her $$’s to use bailing out Jeff Prang’s campaign debt. After all, he stood behind her appointment. On one hand $50.000 should be a good investment in one’s future on the other hand good judgement is always essential. What to do?
Im not too sure that political endorsements don’t mean much. Maybe not to the gaggle of local political observers, but to the average voter who has limited interest in politics and not fully familiar with the candidates the endorsements can be useful.
For those voters, endorsements are very telling. Especially when the wisdom of so many organizations overwhelmingly favor one candidate.
I just don’t see endorsements being important in a city as small as West Hollywood. If you pay attention to local politics, it’s easy to know the candidates and what they stand for. It’s easy to read about them online or go to one of their events. Voters should be able to make up their own minds without meaningless endorsements. The bigger problems are voter apathy and voter turn out. It appears that most people just don’t care (based on turn out).
The curious lack of endorsement here is Jeffrey Prang. He may be torn b/w his past mutual support of John Heilman and his initial nurturing/nominating to commissions of Heidi Shink before she became a wholly owned subsidiary of John D’Amico Inc. Or maybe now that he’s left WeHo gov’t he prefers not to get involved anymore (the Assessor’s Office is offically non-partisan, like all county offices but also the council gov’t.)
The only endorsement I need is yours. I’m not an ‘insider’ to the establishment and many of these endorsements are BS. Do you need somebody to tell you who to vote for?