Political Gumbo: About Last Night

We’re doing two pots this week.

John Kennedy and Jason Lyon maintained their leads in the local City Council races on Wednesday morning in the District 3 and District 7 respectively.

So what can we take away from Tuesday’s election? 

Remember all the hoopla about campaign financing reform allowing for new faces and all that, well turns out the candidates with the most money are winning.

An aside, it’s still strange people claimed that they wanted finance reform to block corrupt developers from influencing the race and then the same people turned around and said let’s allow those same developers to build housing on church property by right with little accountability.

Kennedy has more than 60 % of the vote, which means the challenger has to make a lot of ground to come back and pull off the upset. 

So far it appears Lamar’s message did not resonate with the majority of the voters, or those voters don’t want change at this point. 

Lamar made the case that he would be the only tenant on the City Council if he won, but to win the big game it takes a little more than that. 

That’s not a slap at Lamar, Kennedy was absolutely correct when he called Lamar a change agent while speaking with Pasadena Now’s Eddie Rivera after the results came in.

Keep your head up young man and stay involved in local issues.  Too many candidates go away after they lose. 

The city needs you. 

I planned to make the rounds at campaign parties last night, but after I picked my daughter up from school, the Dre Ride wouldn’t start. I pushed that damn start button a hundred times. 

Dead starter on Election Night and it took me three hours to get a tow.

Yay me.

No longer a fan of these push button cars, just give me an ignition and a damn key. 

Of course, the starter will still go out, but at least I can throw the keys in frustration. 

District 5, Rivas wins! Rivas wins! 

In District 7, Lyon holds an impressive lead over Ciran Hadjian and Allen Shay. Lyon was over the 50% mark on Wednesday morning, but his lead had slipped a little down to 52%.

So far, Shay who is running third, has garnered 10% of the vote, but that is not proving to be enough to send the race to a runoff for now.

Lyon currently sits on the all-important Planning Commission, which has been a breeding ground for councilmembers.

Felicia Williams was president of the commission when she ran. 

Hadjian is a former planning commissioner and she is sharp.

Still a lot of votes to be counted in that one as well. The question is obvious will Shay and Hadjian garner enough votes to lower Lyon’s percentage under 50%.

Time will tell and Pasadena Now will continue to provide updated numbers until the races are called. 

So I asked several former councilmembers what advice they would give the new district 7 council member. The best came from former Mayor Bill Paparian.

Dig this answer. 

“Never forget that you are a servant of the people.”

‘Nuff said.