Reporters either love election night or hate it. The love usually comes from the fact that beer is flowing, people are having fun, and everybody is excited to talk to you, a reporter. The hate kicks in because sometimes the party goes sour, people leave early, and no one wants to see the face of you, a reporter.
It all depends on which party you’re attending. Winners are happy, and losers are mad, but they generally all have a party. That’s what’s so weird about election night coverage. Win or lose, these people have to show up to try and thank their supporters. It makes for some interesting events.
I ended up at Santa Maria City Council candidate Mike Cordero’s party for most of Election Night 2008. Cordero won handily, so the mood was ecstatic at his event.
“I’m too happy to eat,” said Council-woman Hilda Zacarias, grinning from ear to ear.
Zacarias literally broke a bone for Barack Obama (she tripped while in campaigning training and broke her arm), but still managed to campaign for Cordero.
“This is the community speaking out for Mike Cordero,” she said.
The police lieutenant got his first numbers back just as I walked in the door. As I walked up to say hello, he looked happy and surprised, like he couldn’t believe his luck.
His supporters could believe it, however, and they’d already started to celebrate. But don’t worry—no one was drinking and driving, not with that many cops in the room.
“I thought you’d be off somewhere building a jail,” I heard a woman say to Sheriff Bill Brown.
“Yeah, with his bare hands,” I said to no one in particular. I think only former Santa Maria chief of police John Sterling heard me. I can’t remember if he laughed. Cordero said Sterling was one of the first people he invited to his party.
For the primary, I was at Sterling’s election night party, which was a good time, too, despite the fact that he lost a close race to Joni Gray.
Sterling said he almost wished he were running this time around because the large number of Democrats who came out to vote would have been a boon to his campaign. Some of those Democrats were in the room, cheering as president-elect Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech.
As Obama spoke, the room was silent. Some people seemed happy, others slightly disappointed. As a lifelong registered Republican, even Sterling said he was happy Obama won.
“I’m an Obama person,” he said. “I voted for Obama.”
It was a very different story at the Santa Maria Inn, where the Republican party had started—and entded early. Incumbent City Councilman Leo Trujillo and his friends gathered at the Inn, but by 10 p.m. when I rolled over to the bar, the scene was grim.
All I could see were two men in suits that silently screamed “bureaucracy” to me. I took a chance and asked them if they were the remnants of Trujillo’s party.
“As you can see, we’re the last guests at the Republican wake,” said Michael Moats, a member of the Santa Maria Planning Commission.
Moats and Tom Lopez, another member of the Planning Commission, said Trujillo left the party early after the polls came in and it looked like Cordero and Bob Orach would be the ones serving on the council in 2009.
Trujillo’s supporters received a double whammy that night. Just as Trujillo lost, so did John McCain.
“We’re still here because I haven’t finished my drink,” Moats said.
And finally, there was Bob Orach. By the time I reached his house, the lights in the windows had been turned off. The party was over.
Contact Sports Editor Sarah E. Thien at sthien@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 6-13, 2008.