This is not an Onion story, but a case of savvy campaigning, good, selective, fundraising (listen up all you wanna-bes. Money is not all bad; just the "bad" money) and a strong campaign message. Here are some highlights from the Beverly Times story on underdog newcomer David Ryu's surprise victory:
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| Councilman-elect David Ryu (second from right) was joined by supporters at a victory party on Tuesday, including former L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky (right) and his wife, Barbara. (photo courtesy of the David Ryu Campaign) |
Ryu defeated Carolyn Ramsay Tuesday night in the election to succeed
Councilman Tom LaBonge. When the mail-in ballot results were announced
shortly after 9 p.m., Ryu took a lead he never relinquished — winning
with 53.83 percent of the vote. The final unofficial tally was 11,269
votes for Ryu and 9,657 votes for Ramsay.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” Ryu said Wednesday morning. “Even coming up
to Election Day, I knew, and my team knew, what an awesome
responsibility this would be.”
Ryu was fairly unknown coming into the race. He established himself
early on as a master fundraiser and organizer, and his campaign team
concentrated on signing up new voters and encouraging mail-in voting.
A son of Korean immigrants, Ryu majored in economics at UCLA and
studied public policy and administration at Rutgers University. He is
currently the director of development and public affairs at the Kedren
Acute Psychiatric Hospital and Community Health Center. His past
political experience included working as a senior deputy for former Los
Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke.
In the race against Ramsay, who previously worked as LaBonge’s chief
of staff and garnered endorsements from the majority of local government
officials, Ryu often cited himself as an outsider versus an insider, or
as David versus Goliath.
He said the three main issues that dominated the election, and where
he resonated with voters, were access to the council office,
infrastructure repairs and development (including mansionization and
large scale development concerns).
“Residents feel they are never consulted, or consulted after the fact — just show and tell,” Ryu said.
Instead, he ran on a platform of neighborhood inclusion — crediting
his one-on-one conversations with voters as a reason he was able to win.
Ryu only made it to the runoff election against Ramsay by several
hundred votes, and he said he was determined to create more individual
connections with voters.
“Literally, this election was going to come down to 50 or 100 people,
and the people in those rooms (at forums and meetings) will dictate the
office,” Ryu said. “I took my personal friends as a template. When I
asked them why they didn’t vote, the reoccurring theme was that, ‘My
vote doesn’t count, my vote doesn’t matter and even if I did vote
nothing ever changes.’”
Ryu sought to change that perspective, and positioned himself as a real change to LaBonge’s actions and policies.
“It’s not about the big things, I was running to be your neighborhood
council member,” Ryu said. “Your little problem isn’t insignificant to
me.”
To show that he was serious about change, Ryu announced during the
campaign that he would decline any money from developers currently
building in the district and throughout his time as a councilman. He
also vowed to create a community advisory group to help him properly
spend the district’s discretionary funds.
So no developer money (OK, maybe it wasn't going to come to him anyway), issues that mattered to the people, respect for the voters and a real effort to include them even to find out why they don't vote. Showing that their vote matters made a difference against strong odds for this candidate, now Councilmember.
You can do it too. With the right message, enough money to get the message out and a recipe for success.
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