YEGPARIAN: HOW SWEET IT IS
By Garen Yegparian
Armenian Weekly
December 11, 2009
Paul Krekorian won the election for LA’s second council district seat!
This is a credit to very good organization, outreach to the many
communities and components that make up that weirdly gerrymandered
district, and also a very respectable turnout and effort by the
Armenian community and ANC. It’s also proof that organization can
trump money. If you add up the cash raised by each campaign itself,
the money received from the city’s matching fund, and the independent
expenditures made by outside groups (supporting their candidate or
opposing the other one), the totals look like this, rounded to the
nearest thousand:
Paul Krekorian: $666,000 (total); $223,000 (city matching)
Christine Essel: $1,729,000 (total); $184,000 (city matching)
I included the matching funds because those figures demonstrate
something else. Paul’s contributions came in amounts up to $250 per
person (the limit up to which the city will match) to a greater
degree than his opponent’s. She obviously had fewer contributors
giving larger sums up to the $500 maximum. And that’s not all. Both
campaigns still have unpaid expenses and cash on hand. Factoring
all this in, the Krekorian campaign is in the red by only $1,900,
whereas Essel’s is over $90,000 in the hole. Imagine! These figures
are likely to increase a bit as straggling bills and receipts arrive.
Between the votes and the money, clearly Krekorian enjoys broader
support among the residents of the district.
The race itself got ugly near the end, and even absurd. Sure,
there were hit pieces on both sides. But the Essel campaign and
its supporters stooped a bit too low. One of her mailers claimed
Krekorian is anti-Semitic, sexist, and generally hateful. Anyone who
knows the man, or his positions, is struck by the utter absurdity
of these accusations. In particular, the bases are ridiculous. Some
misguided soul had posted anti-Semitic remarks to the online Asbarez
article reporting Essel’s taking Turkish denialist money. Somehow,
Paul was supposed to be responsible for this. The sexism? A picture
of Essel as a puppet of special interest (see the money aspect above)
from a Krekorian mailer was portrayed as "hogtying" her. Despite all
this, Paul’s graciousness shined at the victory party. He extended
a cooperative and forgiving hand to her, attributing the excessive
ugliness to her campaign consultant.
So now it’s time to build a more grassroots governance in Los Angeles,
fortunately including the Armenian community. This same community
is now confronted with a new challenge. Who will replace Krekorian
in the State Assembly to represent the most "Armenian" district in
the country? Hopefully, we’ll have the wisdom to avoid the foolhardy,
self-destructive, egotistical, embarrassing, and politically immature
behavior that has caused much damage to the Glendale (the largest
jurisdiction included within this Assembly district) Armenian
community’s political clout.
But to end on a more positive note, this victory reflects what we
can do when we act sensibly. And, this time around, as always, there
was plenty more we could have done, organizationally (ANC) and as a
community. So next round, let’s do a little bit better.
Finally, humor and irony are always present on election day. I’d be
remiss if I didn’t share. I was assigned to a precinct that had posed
problems to Armenian voters on September’s Primary Election Day. The
polling place was a residence, ensconced in the hills, out of the way,
very near where the Angeles National Forest boundary lies. I went
there expecting the worst, prepared to do battle. But, it turned out
that three of the five polling station staff were Armenian. To boot,
I knew one of them! Then, there was the man whose wife had already
voted earlier in the day and couldn’t give him a ride. It was 7:35 p.m.
Polls closed at 8:00. He couldn’t drive since, as he put it, he didn’t
want to land in jail. You see he’d just done some drinking… But
this genial and jovial fellow eagerly accepted my offer of a ride,
joking all the way about how he hoped I’d give him a ride back home,
otherwise he’d be completely lost. He was also emphatic about hosting
the polling place in his home next time around, since it was a "much
better location" and not so impossible to find.
Get ready. There are lots of elections of (Armenian) significance on
their way. And, be prepared to put out just a little more than the
last time.