WGAW Incumbent President Chris Keyser Re-Elected

The final results are in for the WGA West’s officers and Board of Director elections, and nothing has changed at the top. Why would it? The election had almost no challengers. With the voting period concluding yesterday at 12 PM, incumbent President Christopher Keyser, incumbent VP Howard A Rodman and incumbent Secretary-Treasurer Carl Gottlieb are all keeping their jobs. Pulling in 1,217 and 1,201 votes, respectively, for their positions, the unopposed Keyser and Rodman were re-elected with 100% of the vote. The nominee picked to run against Keyser turned the offer down, and VP challenger Timothy J Lea withdrew from the race. The little-know Keyser was first elected to the WGAW leadership two years ago when he defeated Patric Verrone. Although the guild’s constitution doesn’t permit unopposed races, it was still fulfilled, union sources tell me, because the second Presidential nominee declined and the second VP candidate did run even though he dropped out before the election. In the one Officers race where there was a challenger, Gottlieb drew 713 votes, or 53.2%, against Dan Wilcox’s 628 votes, or 46.8%. Incumbent Board members David S. Goyer and Billy Ray were re-elected. Joining them are newcomers Verrone, Karen Harris and Ari B. Rubin, as well as incumbents Alfredo Barrios, Jr. Carleton Eastlake and Thania St. John. Officers and Board members will serve two-year terms effective immediately. A total of 1,463 ballots were cast in this year’s rather apathetic election. The ballot count was supervised by Robbin Johnson of Pacific Election Services.