GUEST OPINION
Bryan Witt (Photo -wittforprogress.com).
Bryan Witt‘s surprise margin of vote getting in the June 5th primary elections against the established politician Judy Chu is a tale to be told.
By Rena Kurlander
A virtual unknown outside of the Pasadena area, candidate Bryan Witt (D) garnered close to 18 percent (17.3% according to the 2018 California Primary Election Results) of the total vote for local incumbent Congresswoman Judy Chu’s 27th District seat. Some within the Democratic establishment fear it as a protest vote. Witt sees it differently. “I don’t think of it as a protest…I think people genuinely want real and meaningful change,” he said when reached by ColoradoBoulevard.net. “This is not a campaign against the incumbent…it’s a campaign to clean up a broken system that has been corrupted by corporate money,” he added.
Witt, a former Pasadena City Council candidate, decided to run a grass roots candidacy “unannounced and uninvited” with minimal campaigning and no big money finances (his exploratory Crowdpac page shows $261):
I’ve just been knocking on doors…we can go into the general election and be competitive and perhaps take this seat from the large corporations that currently sponsor the incumbent of that office.
Witt is planning on knocking on a lot more doors in the months ahead. “I think this definitely demonstrates that the voters are dissatisfied with the status quo, and they are really wanting some substantial changes in Washington.” The numbers in the Primary election have given Witt credibility that a virtually unknown candidate, who has been completely ignored by the press, has shown up, unannounced and uninvited by the party, to snatch a significant number of votes from a powerful incumbent. With Progressive candidates giving the Democratic Party a headache, some fear the Progressive movement will do more harm than good by splitting the vote in many parts of the country. Witt sees it differently:
That is the typical argument (splitting the vote), and I find it to be frivolous…I believe when the electorate votes their conscience…they delegitimize comfortable incumbents and possibly clear a path for better candidates in the future.
Is this a sign of a sleeping giant being awakened, or is it just a fad? Will Witt be able to muster more supporters for the 2018 modterm elections on November 6 and give Chu a run for her money? As the results from the Governor’s race in California’s top-two “jungle primary” show, former L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is out, and Jon Cox, a Republican businessman backed by the GOP President, is in second spot. Are Democrats asleep at the wheel, or are Progressives disrupting and weakening the process in their quest for a change? Is Bryan Witt’s surprise show on the scene against the powerful Judy Chu a sign that many Democratic voters are ready for a change?
Only time will tell.
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