Mailbag

A reader writes:

I am just curious who are these people in the Claremont 400. And what makes them think, only they know what is good for our city. If you have some time down the road, I would appreciate some comments about this. Thanks.

Dear Reader, we believe "Claremont 400" is a reference to the term "The Four Hundred," coined in 1892 by New York socialite Ward McAllister, who said that that was about the total number of people in New York who really mattered.

There aren't really 400 in Claremont. Who knows what the exact number is? There's no precise way of defining if one fits in this social club or not. One has to simply follow events and piece things together.

Origins: Former mayor Judy Wright has said in the past that one of the seminal events in the Claremont 400's history was the Claremont school board recall (around 1977--we will have to check to get more exact information). The recall was prompted by the community's negative reaction to a proposed school closure. It represented a sort of flexing of local political muscle, and the mailing and supporter lists from the recall formed the core of the 400's support in later city council and school board campaigns.

As this group came to control the city council, it also controlled the make-up of city commissions and stocked them with people loyal to the 400. Once Glenn Southard was hired as city manager in 1987, everything was in place for the political machine that would control all of the city's processes--a machine that was both judge and jury, stamping official decisions as fair and clean.

At the same time they controlled the official elected and appointed bodies, they also came to dominate groups like the League of Women Voters, the Claremont Community Foundation, the Claremont Chamber of Commerce, the Claremont Rotary, and the Claremont Kiwanis, Claremont Heritage and the Claremont Friends of the Library, to name a few.

Now, all of these groups accomplish many good things, and there are many good people affiliated with them who are not part of the 400 and who are simply trying to donate their time and money to good causes.

However, if you look at past council candidates and their resumes, you will invariably find they will have served on city commissions and will have belonged to several of the groups mentioned above.

So, let's take a look at 2005 candidate Ellen Taylor. Taylor's campaign resume listed the following:

• League of Women Voters: past President
• Chamber of Commerce: past president
• Claremont Heritage, board member and past Vice President
• City of Claremont Traffic and Transportation Commission: Chair for four years
• Citizen's Committee for the General Plan
• City of Claremont's Committee on Aging: Chair: Legal and Protective Services Sub-Committee

And there you have the prototypical Claremont 400 candidate.

You can also tell by looking at supporter lists who the 400 candidates are. (See our post from 2/28/07: "Today's Courier" for a similar analysis of supporter lists.) Going back through old Couriers, it's possible to see the supporter chain go from Ellen Taylor in 2005 to Linda Elderkin and Sam Pedroza in this election.

The Claremont 400, like the original New York Four Hundred, is all about status and hierarchy. It is the Great Chain of Being that organizes a social class that began as a force for good and slowly devolved over time until it became responsible for the city's dysfunction on all levels.

The time for accountability approaches. If not now, then tomorrow; if not tomorrow, then the day after.