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Lois Henry: Scrivner's threat speaks volumes
| Saturday, Aug 16 2008 12:00 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Aug 18 2008 7:15 AM
There’s a reason children aren’t allowed to do grown-up things, like drive cars.
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They can’t handle the power of such a machine.
Speaking of power, machines and Bakersfield City Councilman Zack Scrivner (weren’t we speaking of Scrivner?), someone needs to take away that boy’s Hot Wheels.
That someone ought to be political consultant Mark Abernathy. But clearly, the lust for one more vote on the Bakersfield City Council clouded his judgment.
So, Abernathy’s political machine cranked up to run over Harold Hanson, apparently because the Ward Five councilman vexed Scrivner during a vote last winter regarding city employee health care.
Hanson crafted a compromise that saved the city $285,000, as opposed to $383,000.
The measure passed 4-3 with the Abernathy bloc — Scrivner, Jacquie Sullivan and Ken Weir — voting in opposition.
Afterward, Scrivner was furious.
“Harold, you’re finished,” he told Hanson, in earshot of others.
From anyone else, such a threat would be laughed off as the temper tantrum of an arrogant, immature blowhard.
But Scrivner has something other arrogant, immature blowhards don’t: the backing of a political machine that has dominated local elections and Republican politics for more than 20 years, putting its candidates into seats at every level of government from Congress on down to school boards.
We’ve seen this level of arrogance and attempt at intimidation before, when Weir tried to dump Planning Commissioner Russell Johnson in mid-term, simply because Johnson wasn’t Weir’s pick.
This is not an indictment of all Abernathy clients.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy excels at understanding policy and knows how to bring people together. I don’t always agree with him and he definitely holds to the party line. But he also remembers who he works for.
And I’ve found Kern County Supervisor Ray Watson to be a somewhat independent thinker on several development issues where I would have predicted an all development, all the time vote from him, a common theme among his Abernathy teammates.
Otherwise, the Abernathy crew has not impressed me with their whiz-bang grasp of policy nor their ability to effect change that benefits all constituents rather than an elite few.
Even worse, Scrivner’s focus seems to be power — amassing it and using it either to crush the opposition or move to the next political rung.
Speaking of Scrivner and his ambitions, he’s apparently letting it be known to anyone who would dare think of running for higher office, such as assembly, that he has access to hundreds of thousands of dollars for just such a run.
I left repeated phone and e-mail messages for Scrivner. And several messages for Abernathy as well. I called and e-mailed Weir. Nothing. I’m starting to suspect these guys don’t like me!
Anyhoo, speculation has it that when state Sen. Roy Ashburn (NOT an Abernathy person) is termed out in 2010, Assemblywoman Jean Fuller (a definite Abernathy person) will run for his seat. Scrivner, who works for Fuller, will be ending his term at the same time. Instead of a bid for re-election to the council, we’ll likely see his name on the ballot for Fuller’s seat.
How very tidy.
I hope when that race comes up, voters remember the words, “Harold, you’re finished” and choose a candidate who is truly up to the challenge of representing Kern County, rather than bullying people just because he thinks he can.
The reality, though, is that money is the lifeblood of politics and it’s hard for any opposition group, even another Republican wing, to scrape up enough to make a legitimate run against the Abernathy group.
At one time, the Bakersfield Republican Assembly seemed to be independent and gaining strength.
But that died two years ago when a coup was staged by a rush of new members brought in to oust Mike Maggard, a former city councilman and now a Kern County Supervisor. Maggard's crime was being one of seven council members who supported the hillside ordinance that limited development on the bluffs above Hart Park.
The Bakersfield Republican Assembly's endorsements last spring — Matt Brady for Superior Court judge, Fuller, Watson, and a resolution supporting Weir (all Abernathy clients) — leave no doubt who's pulling its strings now.
Though the group's president Ken Mettler insisted it is absolutely independent, other political observers I spoke with doubt that.
Which may answer an earlier question I had about how Abernathy chose the candidate he recruited but failed to put on the ballot against Hanson. The candidate, Beau Woodward, is a close associate of Chad Vegas, a Kern High School District trustee who I had thought was a maverick and a thorn in the side of the Abernathy machine. And who told me he knew nothing of Woodward’s potential run for council until a day before the filing deadline.
But Vegas is also a member of the Bakersfield Republican Assembly and exercises with Scrivner at a boot camp in the mornings, which could explain Woodward’s sudden lurch toward politics.
It appears Abernathy’s grip on Republican politics in Kern County is nearly complete.
It had slipped a bit starting in 1998 when voters turned out council incumbent Kevin McDermott, an Abernathy client. And until the end of 2004 the council wasn’t dominated by any single group or faction.
Those days are gone.
With the words “Harold, you’re finished,” we can be assured at least one member of the Abernathy group is ready and willing to do whatever it takes to keep it that way.
Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com.