The Writers Guild of America, West has announced its election results. Chris Keyser, co-creator of the TV series Party of Five defeated Patric Verrone, who was president before, most notably during our last strike. I voted for Patric but am not at all worried that Chris won. I think we had two excellent candidates…and if you go by their candidate statements and campaigns, their visions for the WGA were not particularly far apart. The defining issue seems to have been that Verrone, during his administration, pissed off a number of parties including a few other unions. A lot of voters felt we'd be better off with a president without all that baggage.
I was a little surprised by the margin — Keyser won 60% to 40% — but my ability to predict WGA elections has been impaired since the passing of Larry Gelbart. Larry was a wonderful man and a wonderful writer…but in every WGA election, he endorsed one or more candidates and you could just about bet the family heirlooms that Larry's pick(s) would come in last.
The WGA does not have another contract negotiation until 2014 so major changes will not occur during Keyser's two-year term. A lot of groundwork will be laid for what I expect will be another duel-to-the-death in '14. I hope I'm wrong about a war coming but if there is one, I'll bet we'll be more prepared than we've ever been.