Old Ties

A few posts back, a reader asked how can one tell if a candidate for Claremont City Council is backed by the Claremont 400. As we said, it's not too difficult once one checks back to things like old endorser lists for past candidates and the organizations listed on the candidate's resume.

In this election, we asserted that Sam Pedroza and Linda Elderkin were tools of the Claremont 400. In Pedroza's case, he seems more a fool who will do or say anything to get elected. In Elderkin's case, she's an actual member.

We previously mentioned that the 400 had its roots back in the Claremont Board of Education recall. We thought that was around 1977, and in checking through some old city council records for that year, we found the minutes of a 10/24/1977 joint meeting of the Claremont City Council and the Claremont Board of Education.

Listed as "Visitors Present" are Judy Wright and Linda Elderkin. Judy, of course, is an old friend who is the town's historian, at least for white Claremont. She is also a former councilmember and worked on the Board of Education recall. Judy is very active in the League of Women Voters as well. A Claremont 400er through and through. Judy worked on Elderkin's campaign in this election and was Pedroza's campaign manager for Pedroza's failed 2005 run.

Also present at that 1977 meeting was a Board of Education member named Maralyn Tipping. Seen that name before? She was on the endorser lists for both Pedroza and Elderkin. Tipping also has an acting career. She had a small role with the Claremont 400 Players in a five-minute short called "Sam for City Council". In that, she played a random woman on the street being interviewed. Also appearing in that short was Glenn Miya, another Pedroza/Elderkin endorser and the life partner of Claremont School Board member Steven Llanusa. Miya played the interviewer.

Here's the video:



Incidentally, the Pedroza campaign infomercial ran on the public access channel on Comcast cable, so Pedroza got free airtime for a five-minute campaign ad. Comcast was under the impression the ad was an interview, not a campaign spot that would have had to have been paid for.

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