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5th UPDATE: One interesting note which both sides have pointed out to me tonight. If the SAG presidency race had just consisted of Unite For Strength’s Ken Howard and Membership First’s Anne-Marie Johnson (without spoiler Seymour Cassell whose positions were extremely hardline), then Johnson would have won the popular vote. More on this in a SAG/WGA election analysis I’m writing tonight.
4TH UPDATE: Here’s the official SAG announcement, finally:
KEN HOWARD ELECTED AS SCREEN ACTORS GUILD PRESIDENT;
AMY AQUINO ELECTED AS SECRETARY-TREASURER
Guild Also Announces Results of National Board ElectionsLos Angeles (September 24, 2009)—Screen Actors Guild today announced results of elections for its top two elected positions. Ken Howard will serve as Screen Actors Guild president and Amy Aquino will serve as secretary-treasurer. Both will serve two-year terms beginning September 25.
Ballots were mailed to 99,485 paid-up SAG members on August 25, and 27,295 were tabulated today, for a return of 27.44 percent. Presidential candidates Ken Howard received 12,895 votes, with Anne-Marie Johnson coming in second with 8,906 votes, Seymour Cassel got 4,838 votes, and Asmar Muhammad received 402 votes.
“I’d like to be among the first to extend my heartfelt congratulations to our newly elected Screen Actors Guild national leadership. I look forward to working closely with our new president, Ken Howard, and new secretary-treasurer, Amy Aquino, as we focus on the wide range of critical issues facing our members in the coming year,” said SAG Interim National Executive Director David White. “I also extend my thanks, and the gratitude of SAG members and staff to Alan Rosenberg and Connie Stevens for their service and sacrifice on behalf of our union.”
“I am deeply honored to be chosen by the membership to lead the Screen Actors Guild,” said Ken Howard. “I campaigned on the promise that I’d do everything in my power to strengthen our position at the bargaining table by building a greater unity with AFTRA and the other entertainment unions, and that’s exactly what I intend to do. Despite the sharp differences that those of us active in Guild affairs sometimes have over strategy and tactics, we need to continually remind ourselves that we’re all on the same team, fighting for the same thing — and by pulling together, we’ll only grow stronger.”
“I am truly honored that the members have entrusted me with this responsibility,” said Amy Aquino. “Progress has already been made toward strengthening SAG’s finances and I want to make sure it continues. Only by fortifying SAG in this way can we hope to ensure the protections that performers need in these challenging times.”
Screen Actors Guild also announced election results for the National Board of Directors. Twenty-two of the 69 national board seats were open for election this year, representing Screen Actors Guild’s Hollywood, New York and Regional Branch divisions.
“It is my privilege to welcome and congratulate our newly elected Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors for 2009-2010,” said White. “Along with our staff nationwide, I look forward to working with them to pursue a robust agenda as we navigate the Guild through these changing times.”
The National Board members elected today will assume office on September 25 for terms of three years.
SAG’s Hollywood Division elected eleven National Board members; the New York Division elected four National Board members; and seven National Board members were elected from the union’s branches in Chicago, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Philadelphia, Portland and San Diego.
National Board members elected from the Hollywood Division: Martin Sheen, Ed Harris, Elliott Gould, Ed Asner, Anne-Marie Johnson, Connie Stevens, Diane Ladd, Dulé Hill, Hill Harper, Nancy Travis, and Marcia Wallace (all three-year terms).
The following were elected to serve as National Board alternates and to the Hollywood Division Board of Directors (all one-year terms). Gabrielle Carteris, Jenny O’Hara, Michael O’Keefe, Clyde Kusatsu, Dawnn Lewis, Doug Savant, Michelle Allsopp, Alan Rosenberg, D. W. Moffett, Joe Bologna, Robert Hays, Jason George, L. Scott Caldwell, Clark Gregg, Patrick Fabian, Bill Smitrovich, Ellen Crawford, Stacey Travis, Mandy Steckelberg, Renee Taylor, Bernie Casey and John Carroll Lynch.
National Board members elected from the New York Division: Sharon Washington, Monica Trombetta, Sam Freed and Liz Zazzi (all three-year terms). Additionally, New York Division members elected Mike Hodge as NY Division President.
The following were elected to serve as national board alternates and to the New York Division board of directors (all one-year terms.) Manny Alfaro, Sheila Head, Marc Baron, Joe Narciso, Jay Potter, Dave Bachman, John Rothman, Kevin Scullin and Justin Barrett.
National Board members elected from the Regional Branch Division: John Carter Brown (Chicago – three-year term), David Hartley-Margolin (Colorado – three-year term), Dave Corey (Florida – three-year term), Scott Rogers (Hawaii – three-year term), Helen McNutt (Philadelphia – three-year term), Mary McDonald-Lewis (Portland – three-year term), Don Ahles (San Diego – three-year term).
Ballots for all eligible SAG members in Hollywood and New York were mailed on August 25 with a September 24 return deadline and were tabulated today by the independent election company Integrity Voting Systems. A total of 13,718 ballots were tabulated in the Hollywood Division (representing 25.25 percent of ballots mailed in the Hollywood Division) and 5,997 ballots were tabulated in the New York Division (representing 26.11 percent of ballots mailed in the New York Division). The number of ballots returned in the Regional Branch elections varied by region.
For complete results, please visit SAG.org.
—
3RD UPDATE: (story coming) There are still no official announcements yet. But the coalition partners Unite For Strength and United Screen Actors Nationwide strangely broke the embargo that SAG set for itself today and leaked to reporters that Ken Howard has defeated Membership First’s Anne-Marie Johnson and is SAG’s new president while USAN’s Mike Hodge is the NY Division’s new president. In addition, UFS told reporters that it picked up several seats on the Hollywood board while its partner USAN picked up MF-siding independent candidate Eric Bogosian’s seat since he chose not to seek re-election.
2:30 PM UPDATE: There are still no official announcements yet. (SAG has told media to expect results at 3 PM.) But I’ve confirmed that Mike Hodge has been elected president of the Screen Actors Guild’s New York Division. And sources are telling me that SAGNOW did not win a single new seat in the New York Division contest. This means it is unlikely that MemberShip First, which was affiliated with SAGNOW, can re-take the majority of the Guild. And it is likely that Unite For Strength and its coalition partners in the NY Division, United Screen Actors Nationwide, and the Regional Branches Division, have widened their majority and thus strengthened their powerbase over the Guild as a whole. (The Regional Division results won’t be known until 5 PM or later today.
This was the first election when an opposition slate, SAGNOW, was formally fielded against USAN. MembershipFirst had been counting on picking up some NY Division seats in order to regain the SAG majority. Instead, SAGNOW was blanked despite the slate containing some well-known names. But, even worse for MF, its supporter, independent Eric Bogosian who was serving a one year term on the NY Division Board, did not run for re-election. So his seat was regained by USAN. (He also was an alternate on the National Board, in the second position in New York.)
As for the Hollywood board, every extra seat Unite for Strength wins (presuming it does) means a loss for Membership First, which is still expected to retain its domination of the Hollywood board.
NY Division’s Hodge succeeds Sam Freed, who did not seek re-election. “I am thrilled,” Hodge told Backstage. “We absolutely have a mandate to work and build for our members.” Hodge defeated Mitchell Green, who ran on the SAGNOW slate, which was aligned with the MembershipFirst faction. Like Freed, Hodge is a member of USCAN, the block that has held control over the New York division for years.
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USAN HAS SWEPT THE NEW YORK ELECTIONS, TOP TO BOTTOM, EVERY SEAT.
WITH NO CELEBRITY NAMES, AND NO SHRILL RHETORIC.
WITH EXPERIENCE, SERVICE, AND POSITIVE IDEAS FOR THE FUTURE OF SAG.
I know it is akward, but you really should call them “Solidarity and Gains NOW!” because they were told quite explicitly by guild legal staff that they could not use “SAGNOW” as it implied official SAG sanction to use the SAG acronym. They can’t refer to themselves that way, so you shouldn’t either.
Tho perhaps it no longer matters anyway, nor ever again. . .
Actually, MF lost a seat in NY. Although Eric Bogozian was independent, he was MF and endorsed MF East….
“the membership has spoken,” as they say, at least in ny. I thought tony lobianco and melissa leo had a real shot in ny, but, the ny branch aint going for the mf pitch: strength, and solidarity in sag, not diffusion through eventual merger with aftra and appeasement of the amptp and aftra NOW by being “nice,” as a realistic approach to the next round of negotiations.
well, we’ll see what goes down in l.a., but I just get the feeling we’re in for another merger attempt, an attempt at qualified voting, further losses in new media, and actors getting past their cross-eyed rage at the very effective vilification of mf as the reason for all sag’s problems, being replaced in a couple years by cross-eyed rage at the fact that ken howard and ufs, usan, and rbd have no idea how they are going to get back what they gave away in the 2009 tv/theatrical contract.
how do you negotiate forward from 17 to 24 days of free windows on the internet and a $24 residual for 6 months, up to a whopping $48 dollars (another $24!) for a year?! how do you negotiate forward from a nonunion space in your contract below 15k a minute, allowing producers to “develop” content, that would normally have been developed paying sag actors hundreds of millions of dollars? how do you negotiate forward having given away clip consent, and product placement protections, depriving commercial actors from auditioning for products they had to (as a condition of employment) in tv and film roles, shill, for free? how do you get back force majeure?
merging with aftra? isn’t the PHILOSOPHY, not the NAME, at the heart of whatever is the actors representation the key? (sag, aftra, aima, uncle joe’s actors union?).
if the philosophy, should it come to merger (a long shot, at least for now) continue to be “appease, make nice, don’t rock the boat, keep working,” how does being unified with recording artists and broadcasters and disc jockeys change that?
and on facebook, michael o’keefe, a ufs supporter, argued with me when I said those favoring merger favored the destruction of sag by saying, “it’s not the destruction of sag, it’s the unification of all actors.”
well, it won’t be CALLED sag, it won’t be STRUCTURED like sag, it won’t be RUN like sag, it will clearly be an aftra-centric, less democratic, top-to-bottom, (rather than sag, which is bottom to top), new union CALLED SOMETHING, but NOT SAG. so, yes, michael, that IS “the destruction of sag.”
and, if there is no will to call out aftra on it’s continual poaching and hostile, predatory practices (supposedly banned by a rule already on the books aftra violates with impunity, “cp-17″ [?]), but rather, make nice with aftra, does anyone think THAT will eradicate the political power struggle within aftra for it to become the dominant union that emerges, either singly, or via a merger with sag?
as it says, and as it is still on the books, it’s jurisdiction, and going back to walter pidgeon in 1951 (?) he, as president of sag, defeated an attempt at the way we’re headed right now, by clarifying jurisdiction: “ALL film, is sag, ALL tv, EXCEPT THAT DONE IN A LIVE MANNER IS SAG.’”
isn’t that plain as day? we’re not talking the 2nd amendment here folks. that’s extremely clear language, in 1951 AND in 2009.
so, if ken howard wins and has a board majority, where is he taking us? now that the obstruction of the mf agenda – good contracts for sag actors – has been subverted by the opposition – blaming mf for delays and problems they themselves (the moderates) caused, by voting unanimously to support the core principals of sag – “no nonunion work in sag’s contract” and “fair payment for ALL reuse of actor’s work (residuals)” BOTH WRITTEN BY RICARD MASUR! the philosophical head, and certainly now, if ken howard wins – the dick cheney of 2009 sag going forward, how does masur plan to undo the damage done?
the sag membership never got a chance to hear the answer to that question, since ufs kept ken howard under strict wraps, away from ANY spontaneous questioning or debate with the mf candidate anne-marie johnson, and now, the sag membership will have to EXPERIENCE those answers without ever hearing ANY REAL PLAN to get us out of these awful new media terms.
the vilification by the moderates has clearly worked – of mf and alan rosenberg and doug allen – all working to secure a middle-class future for sag actors, and the survival of sag itself, through good, forward-looking contracts (a percentage of distributors gross across ALL platforms, for example, or at LEAST in new media, so the producers can’t steal it all, as they are already beginning to do), because of what richard masur and the moderates did to scuttle the SAV motion that RICARD MASUR himself wrote!
so, IF ken howard wins and has a national board majority, how will they get us a percentage of distributors gross across all platforms (jonathan handel – an mf-hater’s own idea), OR, are they seriously thinking they can actually negotiate forward starting in oct. 2010 from these current new media terms without an sav or a strike?
anybody? any real plan here?
Matt, you’re right…in your reference to the 1951 jurisdiction definition, “ALL film, is sag, ALL tv, EXCEPT THAT DONE IN A LIVE MANNER IS SAG”…however, that does not in any way include DIGITAL. Now you might claim that the ‘ecept that done in a live manner’ covers it, but legally, it does not cover digital.
As for the destruction fo SAG?….the point of any union is to protect its member. If a new union is formed that is stronger, larger, with more leverage, and it better serves its membership….if thats what it takes, so be it. It’s not about the organization, it’s about the MEMBERS.
Let me know when that happens, Mr. Pie in the Sky.
Tiny correction: the idea for a percentage of distributor’s gross of everything across the board did not originate with the self-styled ‘digital media lawyer’. That was the WGA’s idea all the way, after the digital media lawyer left his position as the WGAW’s associate counsel to publically knife his former client in the back just so he could advance himself.
That lack of former client loyalty is going to bite him in the end (after all it is Hollywood).
This should be interesting…
And now let the gloating begin…
BREAKING NEWS!!! IF RALPH NADER HADNT RUN AGAINST AL GORE AND GEORGE BUSH, GORE WOULD HAVE WON!!!!
DUHHHHH!!!!
PLEASE…..
Mr. Cassel played the spoiler, akin to Ross Perot. He knew what he was doing.
Unfortunately for SAG, it’s all over but the singing…
SAG has been bought and paid for.
Here in L.A,. I got no less than 4 mailers from UFS, one really expensive large size multi colored, a 3 postcards, a few emails and one robo-call.
Membership First sent one small mailer and a couple email blasts.
My guess?
UFS spent $80-100K to get their folks elected in Hollywood, while MF might have spent $35K.
So — was UFS that much more passionate? Did their candidates dig deeper into their piggy banks to buy more PR?
Was MF a bunch of cheapskates who did not put their money where their mouths were?
Or did somebody at a major studio and somebody at an Agency or two hand over some cash to UFS to “keep the town working”?
We’ll never know.
But one thing I predict.
There will be no real improvement in New Media.Not while this bunch is in power.
Actors will lose millions, and middle class Actors will be hit the hardest.
The ‘S’ word (Strike) is gone from SAG’s dictionary — at least for 2 years.
Anne-Marie Johnson worked her tail off, she would have been SAG President if Seymour Cassel had not played the part of spoiler.
Unionfan:
How do you explain Rosenberg’s fundraiser the night before the election?
MF has had deeper pockets for years.
UFS/USAN did the one on one campaigning. That’s how they won. They got out there and campaigned. No phone conference shams. They did the work.
Give credit where credit is due.
Sour Grapes or what?
“Or did somebody at a major studio and somebody at an Agency or two hand over some cash to UFS to “keep the town working”?”
How exactly would that work unionfan?
All campaign budgets are run by campaign rules, filed with the state and subject to scrutiny at any time.
So how exactly would that work slanderfan?
Makes you wonder why the writers who voted for the WU slate don’t have the intelligence of SAG members.
Truthteller,
That’s not a surprise, sport. NY has been on the USAN side for a long time.
This will just hasten the death of our guild, a process that began with the last contract.
Stick a fork in it!
Wow. Deja vu. But I am at least not surprised. This time I expected the members to vote this way. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s time to start a new union.
we are soooooooo screwed.
Nice move, Seymour, you selfish, arrogant, drunken prick.
Because of your ego, we will all suffer.
Get some help, please.
SAG is now well and truly fucked. Ken Howard will sell SAG down the river faster than you can say “Where are my residuals?”
I don’t know about the acting market in NY, but in Los Angeles I can’t imagine that even one actor who goes out on auditions, jobs that used to be SAG but that are now AFTRA, and sees how the payment is 20-25% of what the job would have paid a few years ago (if you had gotten your quote a few bucks over scale) could have voted for Ken Howard. I just don’t get it. Who are these people who are sending in their ballots? Background who just want their $100? Crew Members with SAG cards? People swayed by glossy flyers? The outcome of every election of late seems to be SAG members voting against their own self interests. And who in their right mind will pay AFTRA’s initiation fee when the jobs pay so little unless you get a series regular role you’ll probably never earn your money back?
DEAR “SPOILER” WEEPERS -
IN 2005 ROSENBERG WOULD NEVER HAVE WON THE SAG PRESIDENCY IN THE FIRST PLACE IF IT HADN’T BEEN FOR ROBERT CONRAD.
ALL WHO VOTED FOR CONRAD WOULD HAVE VOTED FOR MORGAN FAIRCHILD – JUST AS SURELY AS YOU SAY ALL WHO VOTED FOR CASSEL WOULD HAVE VOTED FOR JOHNSON.
NOW LIE DOWN AND SCREAM AND KICK YOUR HEELS AND STICK YOUR FINGERS IN YOUR EARS.
I can’t say I’m pleased with the SAG election results, nor can I say I’m particularly surprised.
IMHO, here are the reasons Ken Howard won:
1. Tom Hanks endorsed him.
2. Membership First made a tactical error in opposing merger – they should have come out in favor of a properly-structured merger leading to a new union structured more like SAG than AFTRA (Matt Mulhern’s got a point about this).
3. Tom Hanks endorsed him.
4. Seymour Cassel was a spoiler – there’s no guarantee that everyone who voted for him would have voted for Anne-Marie Johnson, but clearly, it would have been a much closer race without him there.
5. Tom Hanks endorsed him.
6. Howard’s misstep on the Emmy stage notwithstanding, he was smart enough, or at least well-counseled enough, to not speak off the cuff or outside of a strictly-controlled setting (you know, like softball interviews with the Trades) and read off the teleprompters for the nice Youtube video.
7. Tom Hanks endorsed him.
8. Ned Vaughn watched The Manchurian Candidate (both versions) multiple times and took really good notes.
9. Tom Hanks endorsed him.
10. Howard and Unite for Strength did a fantastic job ducking all of the serious issues by focusing on merger as a panacea, and by keeping online communication with actors one-way with closed comments sections on both their website and their Youtube videos.
11. Well, I think I may already have mentioned Tom Hanks.
As for the next couple of years, Matt Mulhern offers a far better assessment than I could. I would add that with the Obama administration coming down squarely in favor of Net Neutrality, the door remains open to independent producers – no-budget types as well as the Mark Cubans – to bypass Hollywood’s traditional gatekeepers, produce scripted entertainment and deliver it right to our Internet-connected big screens. The no-budget types may be less relevant to the unions, but for the higher-budget productions, not everything over the next couple of years is necessarily bad news for union actors.
All things considered, we’d still be better off with more aggressive leadership. All we can do now is be vigilant and keep shining a light.
And Matt Mulhern -
Every post you have ever made – here, there, or anywhere – has been characterized by what you call “cross-eyed rage.”
You seem to be incapable of communicating a single thought or sentiment without diving into a bottomless bag of Membership First cant.
SAG voters in New York have placed you at the bottom of the list of what they want in their union. So why not take a timeout?
Sigh…
No, you can’t claim that “without Cassell, Johnson would have won” because you’re assuming that those people would have (a) voted in the first place, (b) voted for Johnson and not for Howard. There’s no guarantee that 80% of the Cassell voters would have fulfilled both criteria, even if Johnson’s platform is closer to Cassell’s hardline position. If it were a closer race maybe you’d be on firmer ground, but it’s pretty tenuous given those numbers.
The clear advantage of “spoiler” candidates is that it sends a message that the platforms of the lead candidates isn’t sufficient for a sizable proportion of the constituency. When you win with less than 15% of voters supporting you, and with less than 50% of the popular vote, it really should tell you that you have problems.
Of course, the cynic in me says that the actual response is going to be “Whoo! We won! Obviously we’re doing the right thing…”
Johnson would have won the popular vote
No, she wouldn’t. You’re assuming everyone who voted for one of the two fringe candidates would have voted for her – if they had bothered to vote at all. There is no evidence this would have happened. It’s a pathetic attempt to marginalize a heavy victory against MF’s destructive policies.
Very easy for the losers to say “if not for Seymour, AMJ had it sewn up” Have you ever thought that those who voted for Seymour HATED AMJ so much that some of them would have voted for Howard? Or not voted at all given the choice? AMJ did damage to her own campaign all year long.
As for Mulhern… came in like last. As for Erik Anders came in lastest for what the third time?
Mulhern: How do you explain the three votes you got, huh? Could be your poisen post about the writer’s guild president? Maybe your general lack of knowledge about the guild, your cluelessness at leadership or life. Or maybe it’s just your senseless,
F-ing, rambling diatribes and bullying.
Unlike Rosenberg, Howard will get a phone call returned from Union leaders.
He’ll be able to get a coalition of like minded unions started so we’ll be able to negotiate like experienced adults (compared to the joke we were stuck with Doug Allen)
After that, SAG will finally merge with AFTRA.
The rest of you MFers can say goodnight Gracie or grow up and get onboard. It’s on you.
Correction: A ton of money will be spent on a campaign to merge with AFTRA and it still won’t happen.
Because we’ve been her nearly 20 times before.
The nerve of Cassel to run. Didn’t we learn from Perot and Nader. Unions should not allow more than the two established parties to run.
Makes sense, doesn’t it?
Whoosh.
Well, Howard is now SAG’s own GWB, an incurious box of rocks whose “base” has helped dupe a lot of members – a majority of whom will now get to watch him move forward on the expressed desire to take away the right to vote from so many of those very dupes. SAG will be looking after protecting that “base,” and their employability – by giving in more to the employers, all while life for all the little folks will continue to grow worse.
If your on-screen credit begins “with…” or “and special guest star…” All of the rest of you, Howard has said himself, are “really just waiters and hobbyists who don’t have a stake in the business.”
The membership is living in a fog. Matt’s comments are dead-on.
I think the problem is that most SAG members don’t work enough to care if the contracts give them a good living. They just want to be able to tell their Mom in Ohio they had one line on CSI. The union USED to exist to take care of people attempting to make a living at this business. It’s more and more gonna be just celebrities making millions and day players doing this as a hobby, but that’s the member’s own damn fault. “I’m ready for my sandwich, Mr. DeMille.”