Thursday, November 07, 2013

HCDCC endorsed three candidates that beat incumbents this special election. Trend or anamoly?

When I filled my candidate designation this year I put "Incumbent." It has always been the tried and tested standard procedure of someone running for office. I had a local politico tell me to change it to "Harbor Commissioner" because of the backlash the last few campaigns of voters. Nobody challenged me so I got a free pass this election. Then lo and behold, 3 incumbents went down in flames this last Monday.

The Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee (HCDCC) endorsed Lisa Ollivier for Eureka City School Board, David Couch for McKinleyville Community Service District and Brian Lovell for Northern Humbodt Union High School District. Check out Humboldt County Elections. Lisa knocked off John Fullerton, David took out Bill Wennerholm and and Brian upset Dana Sivernale. All strong incumbents who used "Incumbent" as their ballot designation.

One shocking thing that happened during the HCDCC endorsement process is that one of the candidates admitted to voting for Ronald Reagan in the past! The Demos becoming more tolerant in their aged ways?

3 comments:

democraticJon said...

Not this Democrat (who doesn't have a vote on the HCDCC).

You forgot to mention Ginger Olsen. We did not have a clean sweep. Also, we did not have a fair endorsement procedure this time around (imho). Campaign services is working on fixing that for 2014.

Democratic endorsements are the defacto two party system in HumCo imho. Since no Republicans run anymore (at least openly) we have HCDCC endorsed and non-HCDCC endorsed candidates.

Unfortunately what that means will depend on the composition of the board. And that means that even the endorsement's meaning shifts with the composition of the HCDCC.

I'm doing all I can to make sure an HCDCC-endorsed candidate means a truly small "d" democratic candidate. One that believes in the important bits of the California Democratic Party Platform for example (ie land use!). Or - one that believes that we have to work NOW on fixing our nation's income inequality and that begins right here in HumCo by not worshiping at the alter of ... money.

samoasoftball said...

Jon: Great to see you try to be part of the solution and not just a complainer. Need more doers. If we had out of control growth in rural or urban areas I might be inclined to agree about land use. (I am a fan of infill for the record) The general population could care less.

Eric Kirk said...

By now you know that Silvernale slipped by, though with fewer votes than Brian. Three seats were open.

This is probably why I can't be on the HCDCC Board. Silvernale is a Green Party member and therefor couldn't qualify for the endorsement. That's too limiting for me as I endorse people based upon Democratic Party principles as stated, and not simply party membership.

She beat out Mike Pigg. I don't know his affiliation.