The citizens of Rancho Palos Verdes (RPV), by elected all three GOP city council candidates over the two Democrat candidates last night, sent an implicit message that has been brewing since 2007, when the council consisted of three Democrats, a moderate Republican, and a true conservative I admired greatly – RPV City Councilman Peter Gardiner. Former RPV Councilmember Steve Wolowicz, while registered Republican, often sided with the “Gang of Three” Democratic councilmembers (Tom Long, Doug Stern and Larry Clark), often leaving Councilmember Gardiner as the lone conservative voice in a city that was overwhelmingly registered Republican. Many residents who attended council meetings to bring up issues during public comment often found themselves engaged in impromptu debates with the Gang of Three, and being ridiculed while trying to speak. I personally watched many of these, given my RPV roots and my parents’ RPV residency, and quickly became a fan of councilmember Gardiner, who would openly defend these residents, even if he did not totally agree with their statements. Peter was a strong believer in the Constitution and every resident’s right to be heard, and took these to the grave in 2009 after a long fought battle with cancer.
When I took over the local Republican Central Committee in December 2006, it represented the Palos Verdes Peninsula, San Pedro, Catalina and most of Long Beach. To get quickly engaged, I reached out to locally elected Republicans in each of these areas to learn what I could about their respective councils. When I met with Peter and learned how disrespectful and downright nasty the Gang of Three, especially councilmember Tom Long, had treated residents, our committee set a goal of promoting strong Republicans to fill those seats in future elections.
While the first RPV election, which included my former friend Paul Wright and Don Reeves, fell short, 2009 saw the majority of the RPV City Council swing from Democratic to Republican with the elections of councilmembers Campbell and Misetich, joining Wolowicz for the last two years of his second term. Unfortunately, because Wolowicz tended to vote with Democrats Long and Stern, there was more work to be done. ' In 2011, our central committee was proud to support and help elect two more Republicans, former Mayor and City Councilmember Susan Brooks and political newcomer Jerry Duhovic, who had grown up in RPV and returned to raise his own children. A third open seat went to Democrat Jim Knight, a staunch supporter of the Palos Verdes Land Conservancy, who was seem as very amicable. In 2013, both Campbell and Misetich won easy re-election, which set the stage for this year. (Note: the next analysis is going to raise the cackles of my four councilmember friends one way or another. I anticipate and look forward to their feedback.) Now, when I looked at the political spectrum of councilmembers in RPV prior to this election, I saw the make up this way: Knight and Brooks had formed a partnership that worked closely with former Assemblymembers Bonnie Lowenthal and Al Muratsuchi; Campbell and Duhovic (somewhat) were the more conservative members, endorsed by Howard Jarvis and the recently created South Bay Tea Party, and Misetich was the swing vote member, which in this case made him the most valuable member. The election of Assemblymember David Hadley in 2014 gave Republicans throughout the South Bay, including RPV, a new energy to hold its elected officials more accountable. However, on many issues, conservative councilmember Campbell often found himself the lone councilmember pushing for certain motions. It was for these situations that I continue to see what my old friend Peter Gardiner was talking about in continuing to improve the council make-up and monitor its trend.
With councilmember-elect Dyda’s return to the council, the goal set by my fellow central committee members and I back in 2008 to impact the local elections in our district has yielded a complete purge of liberal politics on the RPV City Council. (Or has it?) Most of our committee did not live in RPV, but came out back then to attend fundraisers, walk precincts and ensure registered Republicans knew who was endorsed by the county party and prominent GOP leaders. I would be remiss if I did not call out great volunteers from our former GOP central committee, including Davina Keiser, Lydia Gutierrez, Chuck Eldred, and Nancy Sciortino. None of them reside in RPV, but each dedicated numerous hours to help early GOP campaigns. The big question for RPV now is: what should residents expect from an all-GOP City Council?
What I hope this provides RPV residents are councilmembers who will listen to ALL of their constituents, and will want to show how their proposals and agenda align with conservative voters. They should not expect to see a groupthink by these candidates, like what you see on Democratic Majority councils. All five of these councilmembers have experience and knowledge, and combined with the expectations of conservative voters that their elected officials actually vet ideas before investing taxpayer funds and resources in them, I believe residents of Rancho Palos Verdes will see a healthy, energetic and respectful dialogue from their city council.
Now, if you want to know what an all-Democrat elected city council looks like, look no further than the dysfunction and in-house vicious fighting, including recall efforts, taking place in Carson. Democrats like to talk about the infighting with the GOP because we have a diversity of candidates with unique messages for the Republican voter. Carson has also been sending messages this month…. I look forward to addressing Carson’s issues in one of my next articles.