Santa Clarita Incumbents Sweep!

On Tuesday April 11, 2006 the Santa Clarita City Council incumbents had a great night. Frank Ferry, Marsha McLean, and Laurene Weste swept the race. The incumbents now get another four year term at the helm of city affairs. According to unofficial ballot accounts, McLean came in first, Ferry in second, and Weste in third. Mark Hershey, sergeant at the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Dept., came in a close 4th place behind Weste, unofficially only 736 votes behind.

The voter turnout was possibly the lowest ever in the city's history. Is that surprising? Not really. In 2004 there was a meager 13.7 % of that years 74,723 voters showed up to the polls to cast their vote. This year it is estimated that as little as 13.2% of the 79,164 voters turned out. Its possible that residents of the city are simply satisfied with the direction Santa Clarita is going and think the current leadership is doing a good job. Lets face it, local elections aren't as glitzy, and never get the attention that state and federal elections get. People these days have the attention span of a gnat, if its not on their television, or AM radio dial, they very well may not know about it. Channel 20 SCVTV? Most resident don't know their local representatives names no less understand that they can watch the Tuesday proceedings of the City council or Planning commission on local cable.

I feel the city is headed in the right direction, and that the current leadership should have been re-elected. They were the most educated of the candidates about the affairs of our city, and honestly care about the direction our city is headed. Except for the minor possibility of Frank Ferry, not one of the incumbent winners (from what I can tell) have any higher political motivations for running in this election except to better our community. It sure isn't the measly Council member salary that keeps them there.

While a few challengers were running on single issues, such as the local environment, or street congestion, the victorious incumbents share a wider vision for the Santa Clarita Valley that is three dimensional and fair to all sides of the growth issue in one way or another.

Some advice if you don't like the results, get out and vote next time and bring your neighbors with you!



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