The loosely supervised inaugural Forum ran so lengthily that the youngest visitors in the room at the Senior Center nearly qualified as seniors themselves before the program chugged to a merciful finish.

Neither audible groaning from the exhausted candidates nor dropouts departing the audience impressed the master of ceremonies.

Nervous Time?

Together for the first time in a public setting, the nine candidates for three City Council seats shared a few jitters and made occasional sallies into marginal coherence.

While promising to stand as alert sentinels at the four corners of the community, each one, in his zealotry, pledged to bring more benefits to the city in the next four years than founder Harry Culver achieved in a lifetime.

Perhaps in anticipation of debuting on the dais in Council Chambers, none of the nine revealed a propensity for truncation, probably meaning longer-than-ever Council meeting nights.

Who Has Done Most?

A great deal of chest-heaving went on, without distinction, among those who have and those who have not accomplished more than thought humanly attainable in a lifetime.

With at least six forums scheduled in the next five weeks, the Culver City 9 just is beginning to flex its limbs —all of them seeming to believe that because of their diverse backgrounds and segmented experiences, they have the most attractive basket of promises with which to tempt voters.

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Recognizing they were before a niche audience, all played to the specific desires of the seniors and their affinity for the Senior Center’s programming and infrastructure.

If more restrictive fiscal or cultural discipline is to be applied anywhere in Culver City, all candidates concurred that the senior community should be the last one affected.

The only pledge that went undelivered was to bring Mr. Culver back from the grave — before the weekend, that is.

From a voter’s perspective, except for names and shoe sizes, differences among the Culver City 9 — Christopher Armenta, Cary Anderson, Dr., Loni Anderson, Dr. Luther Henderson, Randy Scott Leslie, Andy Weissman, Gary Russell, Mehaul O’Leary and Jeff Cooper — were scant.

While their styles strongly vary, distinctions barely emerged in their political theology. Differences only showed in emphasis, not necessarily in substance.

In their debut as a team, there was little interplay between and among the candidates, They were too busy concentrating on their own presentations.

Individually, this is what they looked like:

Cary Anderson — IIt isn’t often that a resident/candidate competes from the blue-collar community. And that, proudly, is Mr. Anderson’s boast and his image for the next two months. Plain-spoken, casual, and probably more comfortable in work clothes than a suit, the television camera operator returned to the roots of his activism to pitch his campaign to senior voters. Not a big-picture specialist, Mr. Anderson loves to solve more mundane issues that plague neighborhoods.

If you are looking for accounting or budgetary expertise, he said, turning around and facing his colleagues, “vote for one of these guys. I have a different niche.” 

Holding up a brochure, Mr. Anderson said he has developed a vision known as “Eight Easy Steps for Improving Culver City,” as laid out in his pamphlet.

However, trouble developed in printing out copies. He only had two, one of which he gave away.

Dr. Luther Henderson — The arts scene, especially — but not only — classical music, has been regarded as the main bailiwick of Dr. Henderson, a professor at Los Angeles City College for the past quarter-century.

For a sheerly interesting lifestyle and background, the musical and educational maven is one of several candidates who form compelling study subjects even before they lay down a single promise.

His 13 years as Academic Senate Treasurer for the Los Angeles Community College District, monitoring a $1.3 billion budget, has given him sophisticated insights into fiscal issues, he said.

Based on his opening gambit on Wednesday, he does not lack for confidence. Taking the microphone from behind the speaker podium and striding to the middle of the floor, Dr. Henderson stepped out of his best-known role as an aesthete. He spoke as a community leader who vows to “put families first,” to attract small business and to maintain strong controls on mushrooming development.

Mehaul O’Leary — His still-rich Irish brogue and overtly congenial personality stamp him as a force, a presence, when he enters a room.

In recent stops, Mr. O’Leary has tried to separate the slightly sour memories of his first run for office by joking away the differences between then and now.

“I would like to acknowledge the presence of Councilmen Gary Silbiger and Scott Malsin in the audience,” he said in his opening. “Two years ago, they had the daunting task of running against me.”

Without saying so flatly, he feels much better informed, much better armed this time.

He promptly demystified any doubts about how he would seek to govern from the dais. “I have a business history,” said the owner of Joxer Daly, an Irish pub recently voted No. 1 in Los Angeles. “As a community, we have to get more of a business sense about us. When a problem arises, we should ask, ‘What would a businessman do?’”

Randy Scott Leslie — Tall, broad-shoulder and physically imposing, topped off by his military-style shaved haircut, Mr. Leslie, a 26-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard made his public debut at a personally sorrowful juncture.

He had just returned from the funeral of his father in Florida the day before.

He hopes voters will remember that he commanded large units in the military, and that he is capable of leading again.

Short on specificity in Culver City issues, he identified three areas of expertise: people, equipment and budgets.

Mr. Leslie made two notable and probably unrelated comments:

“I am running because I think I can help.”

“We need to have more than one female running.”

Christopher Armenta —This is one of the friendliest candidate fields assembled, and the congenitally congenial Mr. Armenta is a leading reason. Ever smiling, permanently personable, he is the first to speak when encountering anyone.

After introducing his father, seated in the first row, Mr. Armenta said that his experience as the City Clerk has provided him with unique perspectives on the largest, worst and all medium-size matters roiling Culver City.

From his desk in front of the dais every Monday, he said he has absorbed information that he otherwise could not have gained.

“My edge,” he said, “is in elective office, “to be there in Council Chambers every Monday night, working, listening, recording the discussions. This has given me a certain institutional knowledge of issues.”

Loni Anderson — Perhaps more than other candidates, Dr. Anderson stressed her personal relationship within Culver City and the Senior Center.

Lunching with her father on a regular basis at the Senior Center, she said, has given her a clearer understand of wrinkles that concern the Center.

“This facility is not that old,” she said, “and look at the (state of the) infrastructure already. You are not able to pay for the costs, and we (potentially on the City Council) need to make sure funding is available.”

Above all others in the field, Dr. Anderson underscored her commitment to safety within the community, fretting over staffing levels within the Police Dept. and the Fire Dept.

Jeff Cooper — A Parks Commissioner for the last seven years and producer of the Culver City Car Show every May, Mr. Cooper, who loves to make people smile, opened with a lighthearted story.

His introduction to community activism started in the late ‘80s in Hermosa Beach. He was rooming with five other young men, and nightly screenings of the Three Stooges comedy team on television was one of their favored forms of entertainment. When Channel 5 abruptly dropped the show, Mr. Cooper and his friends protested, generated a petition with 3500 signatures, and managed to get the program restored.

“This experience taught me an individual can have a voice,” he said. Now working in the banking industry, he said that having made payrolls as a small businessman, he understands the dynamics of shaping a budget.

He was clear about his priority: “As your Councilman,” he said, “I always will put citizens first.”

Andy Weissman — His civic career the past two decades has spanned every floor and virtually every non-elective position available through City Hall.

He walks and talks like what he is, inarguably the most tested and proven officeholder in the field. He has been everywhere his rivals have not.

Naming problems that possibly one-third of the field of more was not aware of, he said he has the temperament and ability, as well as seasoning, to perform the required tasks.

Noting the quarreling that has marked the last six years, Mr. Weissman said that “I intend to bring a new sense of civility to the City Council. There is no need to resort to namecalling.”

Gary Russell — A magnet for attention at recent outings, Mr. Russell probably was the most pleasant surprise of the afternoon.

Not at all as excitable as he previously had seemed, he presented himself as a no-nonsense almost low-key, avowedly concerned environmentalist.

Mr. Russell said that taking a sensitive and sensible approach to greening and to global warming will elevate the quality of life in Culver City.

An anti-war activist in his youth, he said that “we have lots of opportunities to move Culver City forward. I believe it is time to look at our city a little differently.”

Alluding only fleetingly to his style — “I do question, I do push” — Mr. Russell spent hardly any time talking about Culver City-specific topics aside from striving “to make this the greenest city in America.”