Meredith Stiehm will seek a second two-year term as president of WGA West in the fall election, and the other top officials of the guild will also seek reelection.
Justine Bateman, the writer-director and former “Family Ties” star, is running for a spot on the WGA West board. Bateman has become outspoken on the need for tight regulation of artificial intelligence.
The guild announced its preliminary list of nominees on Wednesday. Stiehm, who has been active in both the agency campaign and the current strike, will run against challenger Rich Talarico, a “Key and Peele” writer who has faulted the guild for not doing more to fight back against the release of free clips of the show on YouTube.
Michele Mulroney is running for reelection as vice president, and Betsy Thomas is seeking another term as secretary-treasurer. They will run against Isaac Gomez and Jeffrey Thompson, respectively.
The WGA West has a 16-member board, who serve two-year terms. Half the seats are up for election each year, and the officer positions are up for election in odd years. The guild will hold a candidate forum on Aug. 30, and ballots must be cast by Sept. 19.
The guild announced 24 candidates for the eight board seats up for election this year, including incumbents Nicole Yorkin, Adam Conover, Dante W. Harper, Dailyn Rodriguez and Zoe Marshall. The other contenders are Bateman, Molly Nussbaum, Danielle Iman, Maggie Levin, Blake Masters, Rob Forman, Anthony Sparks, Alex O’Keefe, Jonterri Gadson, Leah Folta, Susannah Grant, Grant Scharbo, Safia M. Dirie, Sean Presant, Scott Alexander, Jackie Penn, Kira Snyder, Van Robichaux and Niceole Levy.
Update, July 21: The WGA has issued its final list of candidates, and four of the 24 board candidates have dropped out: Bateman, Dirie, Sparks and Grant. The rest of the list remains the same.
