Elections

As Mark Twain once remarked, “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.”  I would point out that, in the modern age, it might be worse to pick a fight with someone who does not have to buy ink at all, but I digress.

In press release issued on Sunday, citing the unfinished work ahead and the need for a new generation of leadership, Dan Wolk has decided to run for Davis City Council.

There is nothing wrong with that, per se.  As we noted, he has a first amendment right to speak out as a citizen.

As reported earlier in the week, the message is simply: “Think before you sign!  Forcing a vote on the clean water project is a delay which will cost rate payers more money.”

The Vanguard has always believed that the hallmark of a free and democratic society, particularly at the local level, requires full transparency.

Wrote Mr. Harrington, “Yesterday, Steve Souza was overheard yelling about surface water and acting as a ‘blocker’ to keep the public from talking with petition tablers at the Farmers Market, Nirth [North] Davis Safeway, and the Davis Food Coop.”

“I am running for city council because Davis faces some serious challenges ahead,” Brett Lee told a group of supporters on Saturday morning.  “I believe my work experience and background uniquely puts me in a position to help find solutions to our challenges while maintaining the character and values of our town.”

On April 27, we ran an article entitled, “Slow Council Campaign About to Heat Up.”  Up until that point, the council election had draw a handful of stories from the Vanguard and not much attention.  From April 27 until today, about a month and a half period of time, the Vanguard has published 43 articles, commentaries, and other stories about the Davis City Council election.

We extensively covered every single candidate’s forum.  We have had extensive analysis of the election after the fact.  That does not even include numerous analyses that we did about issues that were vital to the campaign.  I do not want to harp on this point for too long, but the Davis Enterprise continues to disappoint with regards to covering local issues.

It definitely caught my eye when Bob Dunning wrote on Friday, that it was time to pity the town’s “regressives.”  In some ways, I suppose one could in fact suggest that this might mark the end of progressive era in Davis.  But I would argue if that were the case, then the progressives have won.

Writes Bob Dunning: “STUCK IN LEFT FIELD – it’s really time to pity the town’s regressives – first they were unable to find anyone to oppose a completely vulnerable Don Saylor for county supervisor, then in the council race they finally decided to throw their ‘weight’ behind a McCain supporter who had no problem taking campaign donations from – you’d better sit down – developers – generally, taking money from a developer will earn eternal damnation from these folks, but not this time – turns out their new enemy is not developers, but firefighters – another sure sign The End is near – “

On Election Night, it was 9:30 pm, we still had a long way to go, but one thing that was very very obvious, Joe Krovoza would at the very least for certain be elected to the City Council and barring a huge surprise, finish first and be elected as Mayor Pro Tem.  And so in the middle of his living room he gave a brief political speech, thanking his supporters and introducing his team.

One thing that he mentioned in his speech was how they did it, and the biggest surprise of all is that despite finishing first, despite spending the most money in the campaign, he did not send out a single mailer.  Instead they ran a very grassroots oriented campaign, organizing around neighborhoods and having neighbors talk to neighbors.

As I was making my rounds on Tuesday night, mainly trying to cover election night news, a public official who shall remain nameless made a snarky comment to me.  He or she said that the race was basically over when the people who stand against everything flocked to Rochelle Swanson.  He or she said, that he or she could not wait to get to the Graduate to see people like Bill Kopper and Ken Wagstaff along with the more usual suspects supporting Ms. Swanson.

However one defines the “progressive” vote in Davis, it was a group without a natural candidate who could have either stayed home or picked out the best candidate or the least bad candidate.  Joe Krovoza early on seemed the natural fit for this group.  But in the last month or so, it was prominent progressives like Sue Greenwald, Bill Kopper, Ken Wagstaff, Mike Harrington, among many others that probably swung the election toward Rochelle Swanson and away from Sydney Vergis.

We knew one thing going in, whoever won a seat on the council would have to hit the ground running to focus on the challenges facing the city of Davis – challenges that we pointed out yesterday that will be monumental in shaping the future of this community.

While both candidates had slightly different focuses on Tuesday night and the timing as a little different, both agreed that this would be a new council and while they see challenges ahead, seemed pleased with the results and up to the challenge.

It was a late night Tuesday night as the results very slowly trickled in, but it was largely one without drama or suspense as leads by Joe Krovoza and Rochelle Swanson in the absentee ballots held up and actually expanded as the night and then the morning progressed.  The first precincts did not report until 10:30, by 12:30 am the 300 vote lead for Ms. Swanson expanded to nearly 600 and by 2:21 am it was over.

Joe Krovoza to no one’s surprise finished a strong first to win the Mayor Pro Tem.  He will serve as Mayor beginning in 2012.  Whether he serves earlier will be a point of intrigue in the next six months.  Mr. Krovoza who appeared to be the front runner to finish first through out, received 7,284 or 37.6% of the votes.  He finished first in every precinct but one around campus and Olive Drive.

Voters in Davis will go to the polls today if they have not already voted by mail.  Turnout figures to be on the low side, although probably higher than the Measure P election and also the 2008 City Council Election.  It is one of those instances where the actual stakes exceed the level of passion and commitment from the voters.

As we surmised yesterday, perhaps one reason why the voters are not nearly as engaged as they have been in the past is twofold.  First, growth seems to be off the table and growth has always been the instigator of contention.  However, we also know that growth being on the table in November, while it created a polarized electorate, or at least a contentious one, it did not drive out voters.

Tomorrow it will all be over.  This was the final weekend of the campaign.  Countywide they are predicted about a 45% voter turnout, which suggests that we will see 50 to 55% in the city of Davis.   The predicted turnout is better than the last city council election in 2008, but a far cry from some of the years with huge turnout.

Given the magnitude of the issues facing the city of Davis, it is unfortunate that the city has not been more engaged in this campaign.  Some of that may be due to the lack of coverage, some from the lack of clear differences in the candidates in terms of what is publicly said, some may simply be a matter that a lot of voters are disconcerted with the situation that appears overwhelmingly bad.

The Vanguard has covered nine candidates forums in addition to interviewing four of the five candidates.  Now we have compiled what we believe are the answers to the top five questions facing the city of Davis and summarized and quoted the candidate’s position based on their answers.  (Just to clarify there are other issues that are important as well, these lent themselves most readily to this form of side-by-side analysis.  I did my best to include from multiple forums as needed.)

1.  City budget crisis

Friday I read in Bob Dunning’s column a comment from someone named Paul on Muir who wrote: “Am I missing something or are the current City Council campaigns pretty much devoid of real substantive issues?”  Bob Dunning went on to describe the campaign as “the least contentious campaign in city history.”

That may be true.  Although just beneath the surface, perhaps not.  I know of whisper campaigns that were pretty vicious, but most of them never made it to the public realm, let alone the Davis Enterprise.  Nevertheless, as these council campaign go, it seemed pretty tame, certainly compared to 2006 when issues and heat were bubbling to the surface, there were lawsuits, threats of lawsuits, protesters at City Hall, angry public comments, doors slammed in the face of candidates, and a vicious letter from the wife of a city councilmember accusing a council candidate of misogyny.

Last week we reported that Sydney Vergis had fallen third in a three person money race.  The final required disclosure was filed on June 3 and trends have continued.  The June 3 filing covers all contributions and expenditures up to June 2.  Between now and the election, every time a campaign committee receives another $1000, they are required to file another Form 460 with the City Clerk’s Office within 24 hours.

In addition, the Vanguard has learned that Marty West and Ruth Asmundson have indeed closed their Independent Expenditure Committee.  No other group has filed for Independent Expenditure Committee status.  That does not preclude them from having an independent expenditure, but it does limit their expenditures to $250 or less.

Anyone that has seen a candidates forum or come across Davis City Council candidate Jon Li has not been able to avoid talk of his viable systems model, which he believes will improve the city’s ability to analyze its current budget, its operations and other its structure in real time and then be able to make adjustments and plan accordingly.

Jon Li announced earlier this week that he has released his final report of his campaign, “A System That Works: Building a decentralized Global Political Economy using the Viable System Model.”

The Vanguard received a response from the city regard its complaints that the committee entitled, “Committee to Support Sydney Vergis for City Council 2010” failed to comply with Municipal Code section 12.01.055(c) regarding notification of independent expenditures within 24 hours.

The response indicated that while the committee was in violation of the city’s municipal code, due to their notification of the city clerk and candidates regarding this mailing via email on May 25, 2010 (three days after the mailing was postmarked), they would not seek any penalties.