The Santa Clarita Valley had its own version of the Massachusetts miracle on Thursday night, February 25, 2010 at the local SCV California Republican Assembly (CRA) meeting held at the IHOP in Stevenson Ranch. In a Scott Brown style upset, David Gauny emerged as the only Santa Clarita City Council candidate to receive the coveted CRA endorsement.

Local City of Santa Clarita incumbents Frank Ferry, Marsha McLean and Laurene Weste were fully expecting to continue to be the anointed ones and receive the CRA endorsement but that was not to be. The three City Council incumbents continue to see their support eroding and are now scrambling to kick start their campaigns. 

The CRA endorsement requires a two-thirds majority of the members present at the meeting. The local SCV CRA has some 88 paid members. On Thursday night the meeting was attended by a healthy 69 individuals of which were 43 paid members. Only members that are in good standing and have paid their membership dues are eligible to vote.

There was 17 members that paid up on Thursday night; of that 4 were member renewals; 7 were individuals who had been attending the monthly meetings for a while who decided to become members, and 6 were new people who joined so they could participate in the vote.

The SCV CRA can only endorse up to 3 candidates in any single race. At last nights meeting there were 6 Santa Clarita City Council candidates vying for one of the 3 coveted endorsements; TimBen Boydston, Frank Ferry, Daniel Enrique, Masha McLean, Laurene Weste and David Gauny. Any candidate that received 28 votes or more would garner an endorsement.

In the first round of voting the ballots breakdown as follows:

TimBen Boydston- 14

Frank Ferry- 10

Daniel Enrique- 4

Marsha McLean- 9

Laurene Weste- 17

David Gauny- 34

Since only one candidate, David Gauny, received more than 28 votes there would be a second round of voting. The rules called for the 2 lowest vote getters on the first round ballot to be dropped in the second round of voting. That left TimBen Boydston, Frank Ferry, and Laurene Weste.

The second round of voting the ballots breakdown as follows:

TimBen Boydston- 23

Frank Ferry- 10

Laurene Weste- 20

TimBen clearly picked up an additional 9 votes but fell short of the magic 28 to get an endorsement. Laurene Weste only was able to muster 3 more votes over the first round of voting. Frank Ferry had an anemic showing with only 10 votes in both ballot rounds as his candidacy continues to wane across the City of Santa Clarita.

After all the voting was over David Gauny emerged as the clear winner in the evening as he continues his campaign to bring integrity to Santa Clarita City Hall. Gauny is getting a lot of traction with local voters as he campaigns on a platform of honesty, integrity and representing the residents of the City should he be elected.

It looks there is going to be a real City Council elections in April right here in Awesometown!