Hindsight is Always 20/20
News-Press Photo!
Nobody called it...Falcone did better than most of us thought -- was it the $30,000 she poured into TV? or the power of incumbency? or maybe the help of the local paper? Inquiring minds want to know.
I personally think it's hard to beat a $70,000 campaign. $30,000 on TV (forget the fact that you are also converting Goletans to your cause), maybe $20,000 on mail and $20,000 on radio --- plus whatever the POA could do with robo-calls, precinct walking and their own television commercials with Detective 'Am I Wearing Sargeant McGrew's Uniform' Arroyo. This campaign really went over $100,000 for one candidate.
Travis helped in the last couple of days. So did Naomi Schwartz (did she and Travis keep The Slugger under 60%?) and seeing Rep. Lois Capps on TV incessantly....congrats to Falcone for figuring out how to pull it all together. I may not agree with the tactics but can appreciate the strategy.
posted by Sara De la Guerra | 11/08/2005 11:20:00 PM
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19 Comments:
Travis helped? Nearly everything the Newspress endorsed went down in flames. Why..cos they are outta touch. Travis's mommy buys him a radio station and he can't even talk..jeez Travis..get a vocal coach!
Congrats to Horton, Falcone and House. And now let the blood sport begin. The behind the scenes scheming is going to get ugly.
How does it feel Das? to aspire to the man who would be king and be dismissed with such resounding fervor.
I've written before to complain about Travis Armstrong and the editorial page. I need to stop doing this and get another life, BUT just one more...
For the past two or three months, Armstrong has been relentless in criticizing the City Council (and particularly Blum) about the city's budget situation and the fact that the reserve funds were going to be eaten up through poor leadership and fiscal management. This morning's editorial, published just a few hours after everyone voted yesterday, notes that the "city's unfunded pension obligations aren't as bad as previously thought". You wonder how long Travis had to sit on this information before the election. I'd guess it was quite a while because he felt constrained to unload it immediately after the polls closed. Does the News-Press really think readers are that stupid?
Reading the News-Press editorial page is like watching FOX News. Start with the argument you're trying to make, repeat your version of it a few dozen times, skew the balance of comments to favor your supporters, and forget that journalism is actually a profession based on principles and ethics.
If someone thinks I'm being too hard on Armstrong, he did the same thing to the Goleta City Council, trashing their fiscal planning abilities for months. It turns out that Goleta actually got cited for doing a good job with their long-term fiscal planning, but that story only got a couple lines buried inside the paper.
"It is hard to beat a $70,000 campaign." Sorry, I think you missed the point of yesterday.
Your lead statement should have been - "It is hard to beat the Mayor, a council member and groups who have been your friends for years who turn on you and make up lies and attack you for being a real leader."
Iya faced every jerk in the city, not just the other candidates - headline and story after headline and story pounding on her. Every clone Blum and Das group: from the womens poltical to SEIU and PUEBlO along with the slugger and das attacking her along with Roger sitting on the sideline.
When have we ever seen a candidate lose three top endorsements they enjoyed in the previous election, then have the loss of those endorsemens played out five or six times on the front page while suffereing a nearly weekly attacks by the sitting mayor and a councilmember working full time to oust them and then they win - and not just win but get the most votes on election day?
Never has happened in the past - this was an amazing win for Iya. Imagine if her so-called friends had not turned on her?
Iya raised the money because people were mad at Das, Blum and the useless attack dog groups.
Iya won because she enjoys the friendship of the real Democratic leadership, business leaders, and the unions people trust and like - police and fire.
The big loser yesterday was the Blum, Das, SEIU, and Pueblo cabal. Blum is now a lame duck without the support she needs to even try to be a leader this term. She has made a fool of herself. Das has tained his future. The SEIU tried to play the police and fire political game and lost while the whole city watched.
Grant House will and must run as far as possible from Das now. House is a good man and knows Das is a distraction to the city.
Dear Marty and Das:
Your actions in this election were totally selfish and childlike.
Marty for years we have shared views on nearly every issue. We have cheered victories together and cried when we have lost. I was so proud when you were on the planning commission. You grew in knowledge and leadership. I know you enjoyed my calls and notes to you as a city council women over the eight years congratulating you for actions and votes. Now I am ashamed to call you my friend. I am embarrased by your power grab and your paranoid behavior. As a good friend I would like to tell you to your face, "Grow up Marty." But I cannot as I know you will attack me and my family and try to drive a wedge between me and our mutual friends. As a woman in politics we need to be strong and tough but we do not need to act as you have. Take the next four years to try to redeem yourself and all you represent.
Das. I am sadden for you. I thought you could be the next Gary Hart. A smart man on fire. Strong, tough and wise beyond his years. Your election was the most fun I have had in a decade. Seeing young men and women excited about local goverment and old ladies feel hopeful about the future of our community.
But Das you totally messed up. What happened. Why so mean? Why so personal. And why waste your poltical power for no apparent reason. I guess I would like to say to you Das, Grow up also, but I want to say more. I want to say go away. You are not the next Gary Hart. You are not a smart man on fire. You are just smoke and mirrors. There is no there there. You are just what the conservatives think we are - mind less selfish and unthinking.
Please either grow up or take you act to another place. You tore our local party apart. Not one. Repeat not one women in publc office right now save Marty, will ever support you again. And save Padro I do not know one male Democratic office holder who will ever support you again.
In closing, Marty and Das, we had such a good thing going. Real leaders and real role models for others to follow as open liberals who cared about people but you disappointed all of us by your actions and your behavior. While I share you fears about Iya dismissiveness what you attempted to do to her was wrong. And because it was wrong is why you lost. And because you both have become very vindictive is why I can never tell you to your face. And that means we will be friends in name only and I cannot even tell you that.
From a lonely and sadden friend
In tomorrow's News Press...
"For every vote she received in Tuesday's election, Santa Barbara City Council incumbent Iya Falcone could have purchased three gallons of regular unleaded at the Turnpike 76 station or 1 1/2 carnitas burritos at Chipotle.
For the full story on how much she spent to get the second-most votes in the race, and how much coming in first and third cost Roger Horton and Grant House, respectively, see Thursday's News-Press."
Interesting....
That would be a nice story if only Iya Falcone now becomes a demure, coalition builder, and friend to all. Iya is hardly so persecuted, but feel free to offer specific examples to support your allegation.
Now that Iya won with more votes and placed higher than the political Establishment expected, she will be as worse as ever.
The race for the next Mayor in 2009 has just begun. Will Iya be more of the Iya we have seen for past three years, whilc Helene smartly stays above the fray and becomes even more endearing to the voters?
Will be very tough for Iya, considering all the influence the huge financial contributions have bought.
Das is the least of your problems, Travis and/or John. Just think about this: how can your darling Loretta Redd get appointed to the city council... who would have to win a different election next year to leave a vacancy on city council and, based on what criteria, how would that vacancy be filled?????
Bashing on Das does not make so much sense anymore, does it?
Everyone read it here first, the path for how Loretta actually can fulfill her dream without even earning 6500 votes. The past standard for a promotion to city council was 6755 votes.
Not too sure whos daring Redd is? But there is not way she would get appointed a year from now. Never has taken place and never will. Redd has not enough support on the council.
daring, or darling...
If the Council has a vacancy and Redd is not appointed, then how would city council pick whom to appoint?
Will Santa Barbara do a Santa Maria, and appoint a crony to fill a council vacancy? A justification could be that a past candidate should have garnered some minimum number of votes. Would fewer than 6500 total votes be enough? The previous standard was 6755 votes.
There are things in politics that I am not proud of, but I am glad that I did a mailer and walked precincts for Roger, Dianne, and Grant. If I didn't, and if PUEBLO hadn't worked hard for Grant, he might have not prevailed yesterday. To get someone of his caliber on the council was worth all the work and Travis' flack and this current trend of Das-bashing.
As for Dianne, sometimes you have to support someone because you believe in them and you owe them a debt of honor, no matter that their chances might be smaller than you would like. Contrary to what some of the anonymous folks think, I don't do everything for power.
I did not do what I did to personally hurt Iya, or to "tear the local party apart." I will try to work with her and mend fences, and Grant will not run away from me. We see eye to eye on issues and he knows who was willing to sweat and bleed for him. Plus he is a good man.
Even a better man than I. Too often I have to be tough to get my beliefs furthered on the council. He can do it and be nice at the same time. I'd like to learn how to do that.
I also believe in forgiveness and true honesty. If there is a friend of mine who is bitter for me for participating in this election, please call me and talk about it. 5645325. Hear my side of the story. Be a real friend to me and tell me it to my face.
-Das
Das: you think that rant above really was written by a friend? Or was it just more sore winners, who won ugly and who keep perpetuating the perverted theory that endorsing a candidate by default is a great insult, vendetta, or whatever to every other candidate not endorsed.
Das wrote,"We (Grant and I) see eye to eye on issues"....
Is Grant an environmentalist? From his votes on the planning commission I wouldn't have thought so.
There wasn't a project he didn't support and that, the use of land, is the dividing between those who want to protect and those who want to build, whether affordable or not. It is the big dividing line now: save what remains of SB, unmanicured open space, or build, both high and low rise.
That division was a major distinction and separated Grant from Redd. Where do you stand on that, Das?
I guess Falcone didn't know that she was not supposed to fight back. She was supposed to give up, not raise money and ignore the fact that four other candidates pooled money on ads and mailers to defeat her. What a wank fest.
And oh my how or why should falcone be mad at me? I will try to mend fences. How are going to do that now that you more than supportered others you used other groups to attack Iya. Nicely done but it back fired. Janet Wolfe or Landecker for me.
A late responce to the rave about House. House thinks and supports good projects. He does not knee jerk, yet he does torture any applicant with long demands and a lengthy review, he follows the law and does not deny everything. As a PC House made bad projects good or chased them out of the city without forcing a vote.
Das---the fences that you say you're going to try to mend are broken because you tore them down; the sort of logic you employ stops working after first grade, for most of us. Ever heard of burned bridges? That's what you've wrought. Other people will work to ultimately mend the damage done by you and others to the way we do politics in Santa Barbara. Do us a favor--don't "help" any more. Find another profession, or another community to "mend".
Das there are no fences to mend you burnt them all down. I agree with anon above that you should find a new profession.
Responding to anonymous, who was responding to another anonymous: it may be that Grant House "thinks and supports good projects," but what I recall is how when long-time City Planning Commissioner Bendy White was asked if he would support Grant's candidacy to the Council replied, yes, he would.
Grant, he said, was a good man, his own man and he, White, would vote for him even though he was "pro-development."
I suspect that this present Council is now full of pro-development people with Das, perhaps, being the only hold-the-line for the neighborhoods. And it was for that reason he supported Diane Channing. (For that reason, if neighborhood preservation is of prime importance to him, he should have also supported Loretta Redd. But clearly it was not: the living wage issue predominated over land use.)
As for fences, they have two sides. Iya Falcone definitely has done her share of trashing. How about instead of fences between the council members there is open space!
...And may that community openness be shared with the rest of us as well, instead of the attitude of I'm-on-the-dais-looking-down-on-you that Iya, for one, but definitely not alone in this, conveys, sometimes even to the extent of lecturing the public that both Williams and Barnwell do on occasion.
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