Some Laurie Ender partisans are quietly whispering that her recent loss was caused by some tactical failures in her campaign, i.e. late start, timing of mailers, etc. Well, the City Clerk just toted up the final results including provisional and dropped off vote by mails, and, make no mistake, Laurie Ender’s defeat at the hands of TimBen Boydston was the electoral equivalent of a baby seal clubbing, so the current incumbents are whistling past the graveyard if they believe that this was lightning in a bottle. SIGNAL
Based on the final results TBB beat Laurie Ender by an astounding 737 votes. (SCVTalk predicted on election night that he would just pad his lead later, so Ms. Ender was right to concede.) Even more astounding and interesting: TBB’s total vote count was just 45 votes shy of Laurie Ender’s total when she swept into office in 2008.
Perhaps most astonishing (and revealing): Bob Kellar with 7,519 votes has set a record for most votes received in a “regular” election. (He is still beaten by Buck McKeon and JoAnne Darcy in the City formation election in 1987, but remember that folks had FIVE votes to distribute in that election so it is really not comparable.) He also INCREASED his total vote count from 2008 by a gargantuan 25%! This from a candidate supposedly “targeted” by the McKeon establishment for defeat. It seems hilarious now that these folks thought they could oust Mr. Kellar just by wishing for it.
Many think that my previous predictions of incumbent victory served some establishment conspiracy to maintain the status quo. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I just like being right and that USED to be the easy way to be right. But like Paul on the road to Damascus everyone can now count me as one of the converted. Incumbency will now only work if said incumbent did not alienate a sufficient portion of the (admittedly tiny) electorate, which Laurie Ender obviously did. With the shield of incumbency gone I want NO more 5-0 decisions, NO more building of consensus, and NO more of this desultory go along to get along BS. Once the paper weights are flyin’ again in the council chambers, then we will know that everyone is fully engaged!
Comments (9)