WRITERS GUILD RUNOFF SET

In the wake of one of the most acrimonious election campaigns in its history, the Writers Guild of America, West, will hold a runoff for president Oct. 16 between former WGAW president Melville Shavelson and Richard Powell, the guild announced Wednesday.

The election has been regarded by some guild officials as a referendum of its handling of contract negotiations with film and TV producers last spring and the subsequent firing of the guild’s executive director, Naomi Gurian. Others saw it as a repudiation of a dissident union faction calling itself the Union Blues and of some of the guild’s more outspoken board members.

The election, conducted both through the mail and at a general membership meeting on Monday, came on the heels of what some labeled the guild’s collapse in the negotiations. Acerbic exchanges in the trade press, emotional pleas to guild members from candidates and the circulation of a controversial account of the contract negotiations marked the hotly contested election.

After one recount, fewer than 13 votes separated the top three vote-getters for president, according to executive director Brian Walton. Shavelson garnered 427 votes, Powell 419 and Irma Kalish 415. There were also reports that several ballots were under review by guild officials, some because they were mailed to guild offices on Beverly Boulevard, not a post office box as specified on the ballot.

The other presidential candidate was Edward Anhalt, a leader in the Union Blues movement, who received 251 votes.

The guild’s constitution requires that officer candidates receive one vote more than 50% of votes cast to win.

John Gay overwhelmingly defeated Lila Garrett and Albert Lewin for vice president, and Alfred Levitt defeated Donald Sanford for secretary/treasurer. (Garrett was a prominent critic of Gurian; Levitt was one of Gurian’s supporters.)

There were 29 candidates for eight seats on the board. Winners are Allan Manings, Carl Gottlieb, Del Reisman, George Kirgo, Jean Butler, Harlan Ellison, Adam Rodman and Ronald Cohen. (The majority of these supported Gurian.)

Current board member Noreen Stone called the results “a triumph for the guild. It shows that the membership wants responsible leadership and they voted for those people who would give them honest, responsible leadership.”