The winners of the recent City Council and School Board election—Dee Andrews, Jon Meyer, and Felton Williams—are clear, but who also won in this round of elections?  The following is my round-up of people, besides the candidates, who won or lost.

 

Winner:  Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce

The Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce has definitely set the overall tone for this past election, and the results put them in a position of future strength.  Under the leadership of President Randy Gordon, Chairman Matt Kinley, and Chamber PAC Chair Dave Neary, the Long Beach Chamber has come around within the last year from a continual election losing streak (Steve Kuykendall, Becky Blair, Alex Cherin, Ahmed Saafir), to a group that defined the debate between a contest of a successful School District, versus a “drunk driving supporting” Teachers Union.  The results should give further strength to their effort to recall School Board Member Michael Ellis.

 

Loser: Teachers Association of Long Beach

The pendulum swung from two years ago, when a robust Teacher’s Union, under the combative leadership of Scott McVarish, won two seats, and came within one seat of completely controlling the Long Beach Unified School District.  McVarish’s success came from his own aggressive style, but when he trampled on too many egos, the TALB split, and McVarish was eventually ousted after a bitter conflict.  When even the local Democratic Party, and most Democratic leaders, would not support the Union backed candidates, that’s when you know you are in trouble.  TALB may take the path that many wish—to seek more accommodation as in the past, but I wonder how many people are pondering how they could have done had they kept McVarish?

 

Winner: Jeff Adler, Political Consultant

It’s one thing to win an election outright against a single opponent, as Dee Andrews and Felton Williams did, but it is completely different to win an election outright with two opponents—one well funded, yet unknown; one well known, yet under funded.  Jon Meyer’s political consultant, Jeff Adler, has had a dearth of high profile Long Beach successes in the most recent past, but by steering the debate to help Meyer crush his opponents, he comes out as the consultant that stopped the Teacher’s Union when others couldn’t.  

 

Loser: Tracy Kittinger, Political Consultant

Jon Meyer used to be a client of Kittinger’s.  So did Felton Williams.  And Dee Andrews.  Believe it or not, all three of them got their first wins with Kittinger as their consultant.  Meyer left for Adler after the 2006 election, and Williams and Andrews left at the beginning, and sometimes near the middle of this campaign season.  All three won without her help.  Kittinger’s client, Karen Thomas Hillburn, may have damaged her future political prospects by running in this election.  Although, she may have dodged a bullet by failing to make it to a runoff in an election that Meyer was destined to win.

 

Winner: The “Establishment”

Who is the “establishment” anyways?  I like to think that a close approximation are these people, lbpost.com’s picks for 10 most powerful people in Long Beach, and all the people who hover around them.  They mostly always win, but for the past five years, the “establishment” has suffered some drubbings come election time.  

 

Winner: Chris Steinhauser

The superintendent for the Long Beach Unified School District had a lot riding on this election…his job, mainly.  Regardless of the job he was doing (which many believe to be stellar), with a majority of the votes on the school board, the Teacher’s Union would have sought to replace him with someone more to their liking.  

 

Loser: Michael Ellis

Some would say he was already a loser, but Michael Ellis’s political prospects just went down a lot with the breakdown of the Teacher’s Union.  One of the few ways that TALB could redeem itself would support his ouster, and when that happens, he has lost his only ally.

 

Winner: Dee Andrews

I know, I know, I said other than candidates.  But of any other candidate, Dee Andrews has performed the biggest turnaround from where he was in the past.  78% of the vote is a big win, and the fact that so many former rivals rallied around this former two-time loser, puts him on the top of the City Council pack.

 

Loser: Ahmed Saafir

You can see the difference between skilled politician and a novice when by who has the ability to get out at the right time.  Everybody thought that last year’s 2nd place finisher Al Austin would challenge Dee Andrews in this race, but he saw the writing on the wall and got out.  Saafir angered many of his formerly ardent supporters by staying in this race, which left him bereft of dollars that he once had.  By running this time around, he may have sealed his political fate for a very long time.  

 

Do you have any more winners and losers in this election?  Please leave them in the comments section.