The council races are tightening up
Martin versus Hammett will be a comedy goldmine, a four-way race for Woods' seat will be disastrous for Lang, and Willson holds the early edge over Zavodnyik -- let the games begin
-- John Patten, 08/31/07
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com

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Hammett / Martin
Ed Martin has taken a vacation/sabbatical/whatever from his regular political column at the Venice Gondolier to consider a run for office. With Sue Lang announcing her candidacy, Martin becomes the new holder of the worst kept political secret in town. Venice is not holding its breath to await his scheduled September 4th announcement that he will be running for mayor -- it's been a fait accompli for some time already.

Martin versus incumbent Fred Hammett should produce one of the most entertaining races ever in memory as one of the brightest men in Venice will be taking on one of the...

well...

...one of the best-structured box of rocks that city hall has ever used for terrarium filler.

There, that's alright then. I was struggling to say something kind and I think I pulled it off quite nicely.

At this point, all bets are on Martin, as hizzoner has become the figurehead for a variety of politically calamitous ills, including the ongoing short term rental debate, the ongoing airport charrette fiasco, high property taxes, gridlocked growth, and the list goes on. Martin's reputation as a deep thinker and the current mayor's reputation as a deep intellectual mudhole doesn't hurt Martin any, either.

Never let it be said, though, that hizzoner lets his fiscal guard down. Just last month, he received notification that the city's PayPal account had been compromised, so he lost no time two days in notifying the finance director:

From: Fred Hammett [mayor]
To: Jeffery Snyder [city finance director]
Date: Friday - July 13, 2007 2:07 PM
Subject: Fwd: Attention : Confirm Your PayPal Account

Am I supposed to do something with this?

----------

From: "service@paypal.us" <service@paypal.us>
Date: Wednesday - July 11, 2007 11:10 PM
Subject: Attention : Confirm Your PayPal Account.

Dear PayPal Member:
Attention! Your PayPal account has been violated! Someone with ip address 61.212.126.87 tried to access your personal account! Please enter your account information to confirm that you are not currently away.
You have 3 days to confirm account.
- Click on the link below:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr.php?cmd
[link disabled in this reprint, mouseover in original email indicates link goes to a .pk -- Pakistani -- domain server]
Once you log in, you will be provided with steps to restore your account access.

Two problems here. For starters, the city doesn't have a PayPal account. But that aside, a simple mouseover on the link, had the mayor tried it, would have revealed that the link was disguised (gasp, imagine that) and actually would have taken him to a domain server in Pakistan. For even the not-so-tech-savvy, that would have been a clue that this may very well have been a scam email of the type usually referred to as "phishing" (phishing at Wikipedia).

Again, that's if you're ever-so-slightly tech savvy or even if you may, say, sit on the board of a high-tech internet products company. Like the one that hizzoner sits on the board of directors of.

So, to answer hizzoner: yes, you are supposed to do something with that email. You are to delete it and never pretend for a second that you actually thought that it might be legitimate. Or you can send it off to the finance director so that he can change the password on the city's PayPal account via a Pakistani scam server. The PayPal account that the city doesn't have.

Martin has a blog. It's actually a fairly good one. Hammett is not quite sure what a blog is, but he's darned certain that his company doesn't create the software to make them. Only problem is, they do. Oh well, he's only on the board of directors, how much is he supposed to know about what the little people in the company are up to these days? Oh, it's part of their flagship product? Do tell...

Long range forecast: The mayor's race is guaranteed to be a political comedy goldmine. I, for one, can't wait for the debates. Martin will cream Hammett, which will result in the first triple-digit IQ occupant of the mayor's seat since Merle Grazer, and that was nine years ago.

Woods / Lang / Budway / Carter
In unmasking what has been one of the worst-kept political secrets in town, Venice Neighborhoods Coalition prez Sue Lang has (finally, oh Lord, get on with it already) announced that she is running for city council. Lang is entering a crowded race: a four-way contest between herself, former corrections supervisor Gary Budway, massage therapist Ernest Carter, and incumbent Councilman Jim Woods. Lang and Woods are the two high profile names in that race and the only realistic contenders. Budway is a total unknown and, thanks to his commitment not to accept campaign donations, will likely stay that way. Carter has already earned a campaign reputation for being a bit of a kook and is quickly becoming the local equivalent of an unintentional Screaming Lord Sutch.

Things will probably get uglier before they get better. Carter's campaign manager, Susan Clark, took extreme umbrage to commentary about cluelessness in the Carter campaign, which resulted in having Godwin's Law invoked on her in a flame war on the message board of this web site.

Godwin's Law is an old internet tradition wherein anyone who uses the Nazis or the name of Hitler as a comparison to anything non-Nazi automatically loses in the discussion at hand regardless of the merits of the case that they are making.

By playing hide-and-seek with the voters in trying (unsuccessfully) to keep her candidacy a secret for too long, Lang may have doomed herself before she even started -- a vacuum was created that sucked two other candidates in ahead of her.

Long range forecast: Without Lang on the ballot, Woods would be a lock against either Carter or Budway.

With Lang against Woods in a two-way race, give the seat to Lang. Voter discontent combined with Lang's strong voice and Woods' near-total lack of one will tip the scales. During the campaign, Lang will paint Woods out to be an ineffectual glad-hander and CQG poodle while Woods will take the high road and talk of his accomplishments and associations. This will leave the CQG to attack Lang and try to paint her as a bitch with brass bollocks.

But, and here's the rub...

A three- or four-way race benefits Woods heavily -- Woods becomes the clear winner due to anti-CQG vote splitting. This, then, leaves Gary Budway and Ernest Carter with a hard decision: stay in the race and play spoiler for Woods (and earn a lot of ill-will from all sides in the end) or drop out and lend their support to Lang.

Willson / Zavodnyik
That leaves Ernest Zavodnyik, a retired attorney who used to work for the Illinois Bar Association, facing Bill Willson, a virtual fixture in Venice. Intellectual, quiet, and a bit nerdy, Zavodnyik will have his work cut out for him in trying to unseat the charismatic and popular Willson. Willson will no doubt tout his local government experience and ties to the Chamber of Commerce and various civic groups, while Zavodnyik will run on pretty much the same pro-environment and slow-growth platform that was ever-so-close to being successful in his council race last year against John Simmonds.

The winning strategy for each candidate will, strangely, have to be the exact opposite of each other. Willson can lose his cool on occasion, so it will be critical to stay even-tempered in the public light, while Zavodnyik will need to break out of his studious persona and learn how to wave an angry fist in the air in a convincing manner.

Long range forecast: It'll be close, but at this faraway point, I'd tip the scales towards Willson, largely due to Willson's civic connections, name recognition, and the CQG money war chest.

John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.