Joe Arnett reflects on campaign

University IT manager Joe Arnett ran an aggressive campaign in his unsuccessful effort to oust Fred Shorett from the City Council seat representing San Bernardino's 4th Ward.

The race to represent the 4th Ward pitted Arnett against incumbent Fred Shorett, a local businessman.

Arnett was a virtual unknown when he entered the fray for March's Special Election, which Shorett won by a large margin.

He snagged support from the firefighters' union and council members Chas Kelley and Wendy McCammack - all Shorett supporters in the springtime contest - but the political shift was only enough to narrow the gap between the two candidates.

Arnett made firefighting a central issue of his campaign, arguing that Shorett reneged on his promise to support public safety when he chose not to support Kelley's efforts to reverse Fire Department budget cuts. Kelley sought to restore funding that allowed some engine companies to have four-person crews.

Shorett has said the city cannot afford higher staffing levels and that his position is based on fiscal prudence and that his support for the Fire Department never included any specific pledge to support a given staffing level.

The Nov. 3 vote was close enough to make Shorett nervous until updated totals came in on Nov. 6. Shorett, who has decades of business experience in the city, emerged as the victor.

Arnett posted the following post-election message on his campaign Web site.

"A sincere and heartfelt thank you goes out to all of my family, friends, volunteers' supporters and voters! The efforts you made to close an almost insurmountable deficit from the special election, a margin some would say, "Isn't worth trying." - to come so close is very disappointing yet, very much worth trying and we finished much closer than the opposition expected.

"When you consider how far the "Go With JOE" campaign has come, netting 19.8% of the vote last March in the special election to 47.5% now - and that we came within 5% of the Mayor's chosen candidate with congressional support, we simply had time expire.

"I feel confident we would have won based on momentum had there been a few more weeks.

"The political status quo managed to dodge a bullet and got a bit lucky libeling me the weekend before election with last minute mailers and an early endorsement from fire management all worked to confuse just enough voters. That I suppose is the game of politics and the will of the people.

"I'll continue in some manner to represent issues important to us 4th warders and the city and I will continue to work for transparent, honest and accountable public service representation focused on fixing the problems facing our community.

"Again, thank you to everyone.

"Best Regards,
Joe Arnett"