What Happened to Emeryville's Right Wing?
MIA for November's City Council Election
Running for City Council This Time:
Dianne Martinez
Scott Donahue
Ken Bukowski (the populist)
Emeryville's political conservatives, those among us with a predisposition towards ameliorating local business and developer interests as their central tenet of governance, have been a shrinking force in our town of late. As of Friday August 10th at 5:00 pm however it's now undeniable: Emeryville's right wing, formally potent and authoritative, has for all intents and purposes, winked out of existence.
Or at least they've transmogrified into a picayune trifle.
At 5:00, once the City Clerk's office closed, the deadline for filing candidate papers thus passed and with it any hopes for an ascendent Make Emeryville Great Again movement dashed, we became aware the Tories of Emeryville have ceded November's City Council election to the progressive elite.
It's going to be a re-coronation of Councilwoman Dianne Martinez and Councilman Scott Donahue.
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| A Black Hole Singularity Right wingers in Emeryville have passed through the event horizon. |
Conservative voters will get to cast a single protest vote in the twofer election; former City Councilman, the deposed but perennial Ken Bukowski has again thrown in his hat so there will be the appearances of democracy at least.
Dianne and Scott have the endorsement from the resident advocacy group Residents United for a Livable Emeryville and as such they will mop the floor with the guileless Ken Bukowski, like they did last time, securing for RULE and all progressive minded Emeryville residents another two years at least, total representational power.
But it is the folding up of the right wing tent we find so astonishing; their collapse being so complete and final.
Those of us who arrived in Emeryville in the early '80's found a vile little place run by the all powerful Emeryville Industries Association and a corrupt Chief of Police propped up with his dirty patronage machine. It had been a matter-of-fact kleptocracy like that for years but it was soon to morph into the doctrinal neoliberal quagmire embodied by the "reformist" 30 year Councilwoman Nora Davis. Her chief sycophant, Ken Bukowski joined her on the Council for decades after forming the Chamber of Commerce, the libertarian replacement for the erstwhile clubby Industries Association.
The whole affair seemed unstable in the progressive Bay Area. We wondered how year after year Emeryville voters, by reinstating the hubristic Nora Davis, her sycophants and her developer friend paymasters, they seemed to present a perplexing vignette of a little right wing burg surrounded by normal (progressive) people (in Oakland, Berkeley and such).
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| Perennial Council Candidate Ken Bukowski A Councilman in the 1980's, he's running again this year. Formerly a Nora Davis sycophant, Ken's an ideologue turned populist; no longer owned by the right wing. |
It was in the cusp of the new milieu that RULE and the Tattler were born, representing the new Emeryville; a town like the rest of the Bay Area, shorn of its magical thinking narrative from its right wing high priestess.
So it was to be expected our town would cast off its strange and unsustainable What's-good-for-business-is-good-for-Emeryville ideological overlay. The change has been underway for some years now, the demise of the Chamber of Commerce coming in 2015.
Even still, we can't imagine our former overlords would be so utterly vanquished. We're going into an election season with no resistance! Where did they all go? For all the efforts of our blogger friend Rob Arias, his villainous right wing tropes offered up to the easily manipulated by his heavily monetized E'Ville Eye, there appears to be nobody home in right wing world Emeryville edition.
It's all so weird.
So it's to be a brave new Emeryville. Now onward comrades to glorious one party rule, this time from the other side. What could go wrong with that?
An entertaining read Mr. Donahue but Emeryville doesn't have a right wing to speak of. I'm not sure what you're even talking about.
ReplyDeleteNo right wing to speak of? That's the whole point of the story.
DeleteI thinkyourdescriotion of me is inaccurate as it relates to Nora. I agree with you the focus of our direction is to be more aligned with our neighbors. I created the Emeryville Chamber to bring the residents and businesses together but the chamber was hijacked and then controlled by the former city manager. I think its important for the city council members to be elected. I am not right or left wing. Im about empowering the people to achieve the maximum benefit.
ReplyDeleteThanks for responding Ken. You'll note the story relates how you were formerly an ally of Nora Davis. This is accurate. You ran together with her as part of a slate after all. Later on, you parted ways with her as the story indicates. The story accurately tells how Ms Davis held steadfast to her right wing ideological views throughout her tenure on the council whereas you became more populist in your policy views. This is important for readers to understand because it supports the premise that even though you are running for Council this year, the right wing in Emeryville is disappearing. You could have been arguably identified as right wing in the past, but not anymore.
DeleteReally? don't count your chickens. We'll see in November wont we? Voters are going to remember the most expensive minimum wage in the nation and the fair work week socialist government grab. People are smart enough to know killing businesses is killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. The producers and job creators could well go on strike if you keep up with the socialism in Emeryville. Then you'd be screwed because there will be no money for the government employee moochers at city hall. Don't keep kicking the hornets nest Emeryville. You'll be sorry if you do.
ReplyDelete"Really?" Right back at ya buddy.
DeleteConservative voters may well remember the minimum wage ordinance and all the other personal slights they feel from this progressive City Council come November. But what are they going to do about it besides whine and complain? The answer is nothing. Because they have winked out of existence to such an extent, they can't even field a slate of candidates...or even one candidate.
By "really?" maybe you mean the coming conservative revolution when the E'ville Eye clones storm the Bastille at 1313 Park Ave. In that case, we'll take back what we said about Emeryville's right wing.
In the mean time, we're going to go with the idea that by not being able to field a candidate equals a winking out of existence...or at least it's indicative of conservatives having a bad hair day.
A really bad hair day.
What you call right wing everybody else calls normal. Dude, you're out to lunch.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the headline then should be ‘Emeryville’s Disapearing Normal People’.
DeleteDon't taunt them. It won't end well
ReplyDelete"So it's to be a brave new Emeryville. Now onward comrades to glorious one party rule, this time from the other side. What could go wrong with that?"
ReplyDeleteWhat could go wrong? Look at Communist Russia, Communist China, Venezuela, North Korea...Comrade.
Reading comprehension in school wasn't your strongest subject I'm thinking.
Delete