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| Council Member Lisa Bender speaks at LHENA’s 2015 annual meeting. |
Last week, in an effort to get others elected to LHENA’s Board of Directors, I failed miserably and got myself elected instead. Turnout was surprisingly high. I thought we were doomed, but strange new faces began arriving later in the evening, closer to the advertised election time, providing hope.
A lady in the front row was moved to ask if candidates would be required to announce their homeowner/renter status (that was weird). The composition of the room affected one incumbent, whose speech turned into a concession, with a reference to her age being a political handicap. But in the end, we were still kind of doomed. Demographics weren’t favorable enough. I blame baseball, amazing weather, and cool kids with better things to do.
In an attempt to bring the neighborhood together, new LHENA Board Member @johneapolis has asked to be sworn in on Healy’s copy of the Koran.
— Wedge LIVE! (@WedgeLIVE) April 17, 2015
Last week’s election also raises some questions.
1. Why? I ask myself the same question.
2. Was Meg giving you dirty looks the whole evening? You’re just paranoid.
3. What do you consider to be your campaign’s “Game Change” moment? Had to be when a group of older gentlemen got a hold of our slate of candidates and started passing around a handwritten list of names. It probably didn’t cost us any votes, but it was funny.
4. What happens to your social media empire? Financial managers have placed my entire stake in wedgelive.com and @WedgeLIVE into a blind trust. While I will continue to own 100% of this blogspot, I will have no idea that this is the case.
5. Will you continue to live-tweet LHENA Board meetings? My new circumstances likely make high-volume live-tweeting a thing of the past. That doesn’t mean there won’t be breaking news to report from time to time.
6. When are you moving to Whittier? My lease is up in September… Just kidding. I pledge to serve my entire term, and grow enough gray hairs by the end of those two stress-filled years to pass for a long-time resident.
7. Your political role model? Marco Rubio. I’m prepared to be the young-ish, mediocre, political hotshot on the receiving end of overly generous descriptions, such as “good looking” and “articulate” and “has hair” and “makes words with his mouth.”
8. What details are important to preserve for historians looking back 45 years from now?
Seven LHENA Board seats were up for grabs in 2015. They included seats held by the following: Michael Roden, Sara Romanishan, Sue Bode, Paul Ryan, Kyle Kilbourn, Shae Walker, and Burt Coffin. There were roughly 15 candidates to fill those seats.
Re-elected were Sara Romanishan and Paul Ryan. Sue Bode came up short. Michael Roden was lost to transiency. Kyle, Shae and Burt retired to become lobbyists probably. LHENA’s five new Board Members are: Michael Friedman, Frank Brown, Beth Harrington, Katie Jones-Schmitt, and John Edwards. They join Leslie Foreman, Tim Dray, Bill Neumann, and Becky Dernbach on the 11 member Board. Those four will be up for re-election in 2016, along with the seat of Frank Brown, who was elected to a one-year term.