Editor:
Of all the analyses of the local elections I’ve read so far, Joel Mielke’s cartoon stands out – his commentary on the consequences of the triumph of an individual’s ego and self interest over the common good is spot on, and needed to be said.
One thank you note was missing, though. The one from Lance Madsen to the out-of-touch Eureka “progressive” elite for his free pass. Their astonishing failure to grasp that every open seat needed to be contested and their presumption Glass and Kuhnel would be dominate candidates were products of overconfidence and a detachment from reality. Even the casual Eureka politics observers sensed many months ago that the conservatives were going to coordinate and cooperate like we haven’t seen in the past, and indeed they brought their A-game.
The two conservative Eureka candidates who actually had to face an opponent ran well-organized and coordinated campaigns and did exactly what needed to be done to win — they put together a strong grassroots team, defined the issues early on and delivered a disciplined, more compelling message that appealed to moderate voters, who clearly abandoned Glass. By comparison, the liberals gave us an amateur night performance that was a depressing joke. Ignore the fundamentals, run a relatively anemic and uninspiring campaign and you are surprised you’re not competitive? Yeah, money helps, but only to a point. Next time around, I will hopefully be supporting liberal candidates who don’t underestimate their opposition, don’t confuse personal support with public support and are prepared and willing to make an extraordinary attempt to personally connect with voters — in all five wards.
On top of my wish list? A group of dynamic activists who know how to do community organization will recognize and act on the need to level the playing field by converting to a true ward system of representation, thereby making it feasible for a candidate to work a full-time job and still be able to effectively run a competitive door-to-door campaign. Hopefully a measure will make it on to the next Eureka ballot that would do just that. And while we’re at it, how about a second look at Instant Runoff Voting? Split votes should not be determining the outcome of elections simply because — qualifications aside — two candidates on one side of the political spectrum run against one on the opposite side.
Jud Ellinwood, Eureka
This article appears in Holiday Gift Guide 2010.
One more thank you note should be written to Paul Hagen, by Sundberg, Bass, and the conservative city council candidates in Eureka and Arcata, as his vanity run for DA insured that the one team that does know how to organize, recruit, message and build a headquarters from which to run a professional field operation, as well as the rest of what it take to win in a very competitive race, was busy working on Gallegos’ campaign in the fall, instead of re-directing those efforts to these other races.
After his loss in June, Hagen said in his Arcata Eye editorial that he considered his campaign a success and since the only thing it succeed at was to force a run off in the fall, one is left to wonder if that was his motivation from the start, or was it all just about this nebbish’s ego?
Either way he and his vocal supporters were effective at keeping tens of thousand of dollars and hundreds of campaign worker hours from being spent on these other significant races.
Hey Salzman,
It would have been amusing if your machine did take a higher profile in the other races. Then YOU would have become the issue. You would have buggered Neely, Kuhnel, and Glass’s attempts to portray themselves as centrist candidates. My guess is that they would have done worse, not better. You need to stop assuming that the rest of Humboldt, and especially Eureka, views the world through your ideological lens. Opening your mind might stop you from being such a crybaby.
What constitutes the “common good”. What makes Jud Ellinwood think he has the right to unilaterally determine what is best for Eureka or for the county? It is arrogant and very egotistical for him, or any individual, including Richard Salzman, to make pronouncements about the common good.
Only egotistical control freaks would disparage another person because they ran for an office without being anointed by them and the other self-appointed dictators.
It takes a twisted mind to equate neutrality with the “the triumph of an individual’s ego and self interest over the common good”. By definition, to be neutral is to not influence. To be neutral is to remove your ego from the situation.
Ellinwood and Salzman are pouting because things did not go their way. If their egos were not so big, they might take away the lesson that they do not run the show. Voters in Humboldt county decided for themselves what is “good”.
Ellinwood will never “get it’. Salzman will never understand that his presence in any political race is detrimental. The political scene has deteriorated since his arrival to Humboldt. We would all be better off if he would go back to Los Angeles.