Kendo DropDownList is marking all items as Selected - model-view-controller

Question

I have gotten a partial view to work in which I am binding a kendo dropdownlist to a remote datasource. I reuse this partial 5 times in my view. I pass the value to the Controller method in order to dynamically bind the data for each instance of the control (just like it was done in ascx file).
My problem is that for 2 of these dropdownlists, the entire list comes back as selected. I am not binding the data yet with a model view data that comes from an instance of the model, just a blank form at this point.
Here is one of my rendered HTML kendo dropdownlists that has the issue:
<ul tabindex="-1" class="k-list k-reset" id="Title_listbox" role="listbox" aria-hidden="true" aria-live="off" data-role="staticlist" unselectable="on">
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="0"></li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected k-state-hover" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="1">Attorney</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="2">CEO</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="3">CFI</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="4">CFO</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="5">Chairman</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="6">Chairperson</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="7">Consultant</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="8">COO</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="9">Coordinator</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="10">CPA</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="11">Director</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="12">EVP</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="13">Executive</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="14">Judge</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="15">Manager</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="16">Owner</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="17">Partner</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="18">President</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="19">Principal</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="20">Superintendant</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="21">Supervisor</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-selected" role="option" aria-selected="true" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="22">Treasurer</li>
<li tabindex="-1" class="k-item k-state-focused" id="970fd67b-52fe-4519-b2f8-36cae7068b32" role="option" aria-selected="false" unselectable="on" data-offset-index="23">Vice President</li>
Here is my partial view code:
<script type="text/javascript">
function LookupInfo(lookupID) { return { LookupTypeID: lookupID }; }
function LookupInfo_DataBound() { this.value("#Model.SelectedLookupID"); }
</script>
<div class="editor-field">
#(Html.Kendo().DropDownList()
.Name(#Model.LookupName)
.HtmlAttributes(new { #id = Model.LookupName.ToString(), #class = "myclass" })
.DataTextField("Name")
.DataValueField("Value")
.SelectedIndex(#Model.SelectedLookupID)
.Events(events => events.DataBound("LookupInfo_DataBound"))
.DataSource(dataSource => dataSource
.Read(read => read.Action("GetLookup", "Contact").Data("LookupInfo("+#Model.LookupTypeID+")")
)
)
)
</div>
I tried supplying .SelectedIndex(0) but that did not work!
The event call is doing at least one good this, in that the rendered result now doesn't show the last item in the list as the selected item.
I do not what a solution for using jQuery to "fix" the problem.
Didn't post my controller code because it is irrelevant here. Data is binding as expected in all 5 cases, except that with two of the lists, all the items are selected.