Agran falls just short of DGI Endorsement for Mayor

May 13, 2024 Dan Chmielewski Uncategorized 0

The DGI memo below offers details on the endorsement process, but nether former Mayor Larry Agran or former Vice Mayor Tammy Kim were able to garner 60% of the vote required for club endorsement. Agran got 54% of the vote to Kim’s 44%.

The video of their speeches prior to voting eludes me now (when I find it, I’ll put it in).  Agran talked about big picture goals for Irvine’s future.  Kim’s covered a story of a somewhat distopian bleak future about of the high cost of housing; her model of what Irvine is doesn’t match mine at all, and she took full credit for moving the Great Park forward without a clue of things that have held up development for nearly 20 years.  I actually doubt that Kim is aware of the fight against the airport and how it was won.  But then again, Kim is good at taking credit for other people’s ideas.

I still think if the OC GOP unites around a single candidate, they have a shot of electing the city’s next Mayor. Agran still has two years on his term while Kim would be out of office.

Here’s the note from DGI on the on the vote:

 

Dear fellow DGI members,

We are writing to share the outcomes of our recent endorsement support vote for Irvine Mayor, conducted through OpaVote.

We distributed 190 valid ballots to members-in-good-standing, of which 176 were returned.

Since no candidate reached the 60% threshold, the position of our Club is to support No Endorsement for Irvine Mayor.

The Democratic Party of Orange County mandates a 60% threshold for endorsement, which translates to at least 106 votes in favor of a candidate, of those who voted.

Here are the final tallies after the instant runoff:

  • Vice Mayor Larry Agran received 95 votes, which is 54.0% of the total.
  • Councilmember Tammy Kim received 78 votes, which is 44.3% of the total.
  • 3 ballots were exhausted (no second choice), which is the remaining 1.7% of the total.

Detailed results and ballots are viewable at this link. Note that,

  1. Though OpaVote reports a winner, the threshold of 60% is not met, so the Club’s position is to support No Endorsement;
  2. The percentages are slightly different in Round 2 as OpaVote eliminates exhausted ballots from the total vote count, but our process keeps them as part of the total vote count. Exhausted ballots were the 3rd place count ballots, in this case No Endorsement ballots, that did not indicate a second choice; and
  3. OpaVote reports 194 voters, but 4 were bad emails that were disabled and reissued via another method, so the eligible voter total was 190.

Also, the club’s bylaws change passed with 92.3% of the vote, given the two-thirds requirement.

Thank you for your active participation in our democratic process and being part of the most important part of the Democratic Party: your local Club!

 

Warmest Wishes,
The DGI Board