Yegparian: Ps in the 43rd

Past events perforce drive us to review the outcome in the 43rd State Assembly District of the California Primary election held June 7. This is the district in which Ardy Kassakhian, with 24.28 percent of the vote, is in second place behind Laura Friedman, with 31.94 percent of the vote (figures as of June 30).

Ardy Kassakhian
Ardy Kassakhian

Paucity is the only way to describe the condition of Armenian candidates who made it past the primary. Other than incumbent Adrin Nazarian, only Kassakhian made it; not Achadjian for Congress; not Najarian for supervisor; not the two judicial candidates in LA County; and certainly not the two highly unlikely candidates, Chahinian and Topalian.

Pride should now drive us to coalesce around Ardashes and put all our efforts into assuring his win in the November General Election.

Why?

Population: Look at the district and you’ll see that with Glendale, Hollywood, Burbank, and the Crescenta Valley, the 43rd is the Armenian district. None should begrudge a community such as ours this district.

Participation is what it will take. While Armenian voter turnout seems to have been respectable in some areas, in others it was poor (more on this in the future). But it’s not only voting on election day or by mail that’s needed. Your time, precious time, is what will carry the day in November. You must put in some time volunteering with the Kassakhian campaign.

Pots-of-money are also necessary. Paltry, relative pennies are OUT. Anyone able should contribute the maximum allowed $4,200. Everyone else should give as much as they possibly can. Remember, outside money FROM JUST ONE SOURCE, to the tune of almost $1.5 million, poured into the race to help Friedman. She and Ardy TOGETHER spent barely that much from their own campaign coffers!

Predatory practices preempt propriety for some political actors in the district. There’s a long history of this, which many of you already know. Any sense of proportion is perverted by the lust for poaching this elected office from our community.

Perfidy is a good way to describe the misleading, deceptive propaganda campaign that maligned Ardy. Plotters pandered to people’s incompletely informed political proclivities.

Poisonous mailers and TV ads played a key role in this outcome. But so did complacency. Many Kassakhian supporters just assumed he had an assured first-place showing and didn’t contribute, volunteer, and vote enough.

Puerile preening with phony, pushy pride is not the point here. Proper, proportional representation of our community is. Who would argue that a Jewish candidate is the more likely person who should be elected from parts of LA’s west side or San Fernando Valley or Brooklyn? Who would disagree with having Irish electeds from many parts of Boston? How about Black electeds from Harlem? Any other outcomes without the agreement of those communities is pernicious and suppresses their political flowering. Why should Armenians be treated any differently?

Prepare, in September, the campaign will kick into high gear. To get ready, you’ll be out raising money for the Kassakhian campaign throughout the summer. When Labor Day arrives, if you care about Armenian political progress, which can translate into many benefits for our communities and cause, then you’ll follow the suggestions made above and dive into a two-month period of intense activity.

Garen Yegparian

Garen Yegparian

Asbarez Columnist
Garen Yegparian is a fat, bald guy who has too much to say and do for his own good. So, you know he loves mouthing off weekly about anything he damn well pleases to write about that he can remotely tie in to things Armenian. He's got a checkered past: principal of an Armenian school, project manager on a housing development, ANC-WR Executive Director, AYF Field worker (again on the left coast), Operations Director for a telecom startup, and a City of LA employee most recently (in three different departments so far). Plus, he's got delusions of breaking into electoral politics, meanwhile participating in other aspects of it and making sure to stay in trouble. His is a weekly column that appears originally in Asbarez, but has been republished to the Armenian Weekly for many years.
Garen Yegparian

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3 Comments

  1. It’s not just about the Armenian community we must bring in others that Ardy would potentially represent. It’s this sort of isolationism talk that repels non Armenians from wanting to vote for Ardy. You must state the case to non-Armenians why they should vote for Ardy.

    • {It’s this sort of isolationism talk that repels non Armenians from wanting to vote for Ardy.}

      Ardy has been a City clerk of Glendale for many years.
      He is very popular.
      Glendale has a large Armenian community, but not all are citizens and only a small number vote. The “old-timers” are pretty much all citizens and they vote.

      Last election for City Clerk, in 2013, Ardy won by a landslide:
      Kassakhian, Ardashes 12,319
      Landregan, Stephanie 7,443

      If non-Armenians did not want Ardy, he would not get that many votes and would not win by such a huge margin.

      As to Armenian and non-Armenian issues:

      Every other voting block expects from their candidates to address issues dear to their heart: Jewish-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, senior citizens,…..
      So what’s wrong with Armenian-Americans expecting the same?
      Are we not paying taxes at the same rate as others?

      There is no question that a massive negative campaign, based on falsehoods and financed by an outsider, was responsible for Ardy losing votes. Basically, one wealthy person not living in the voting district is attempting to disenfranchise the Armenian-Americans living in the Assembly district. You see nothing wrong with that, but are blaming Armenians?

  2. One ‘P’ Garen left out was Portantino and Ardy’s endorsing him over an Armenian candidate for the same seat. If we are now going to play up on Armenian Pride, one must ask if Ardy understands what Armenian Pride is. In fact the same can be asked of the author of this article, who also supported Portabtino over an Armenian?

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