Political Gumbo: Election Day Meanderings

Only one race in the local elections could go to a runoff and that’s the District 7 contest, more on that one later.

But I might as well drop the oft repeated line now.

No challenger has defeated an incumbent since Bill Paparian pulled it off way back in 1987 when he defeated Jo Heckman.

Yes, Mayor Victor Gordo defeated incumbent Terry Tornek.

However, I give Gordo an asterisk since he was a longtime councilman at the time of his victory.

Still it was impressive.

Yeah, I know my phone is about to ring. That’s the mayor calling.

With Jess Rivas running unopposed that leaves John Kennedy vs. Brandon Lamar in District 3 as the competitive race that will definitely come to an end tonight.

That race is fascinating.

With all that’s been made about rent control and Lamar becoming the only renter on the council, what’s the message if District 3 residents send Kennedy back to the City Council in a decisive victory?

At the same time, if Lamar can pull off an upset, it would be monumental.

Not going to make any predictions here. We will know the answer soon enough.

In District 5. Jess Rivas is running unopposed.

It happens, still I hope local voters in that neighborhood engaged with Rivas as if she had an opponent when she knocked on doors.

Opponent or not, local residents have to make their concerns known to their local representatives. Trust me, she can handle the hard questions.

Congratulations to Councilmember Rivas in advance.

Back to D7.

Can the third place finisher carry 10 percent of the vote and force the top two candidates to a runoff?

That’s the big question going into the race.

Don’t be so sure, in the last election all three of the council races had at least three candidates and yet Felicia Williams, Gene Masuda and Steve Madison won outright and were never so much as threatened with a run off.

Here’s how it played out:

In District 4, Williams garnered 51.71% of the vote in a field of four opponents. Masuda had a cakewalk and captured an amazing 59.6% of the vote in District 4 also in a four-way race.

In District 6, Steve Madison had no problems taking 53.1% of the race.

Obviously two of those candidates were incumbents.

But In District 2, Williams won a race I expected to go to a run off.

Williams faced a crowded field, and longtime councilmember Margaret McAustin, who opted not to run, endorsed Williams opponent Tricia Keane.

Still Williams ran out to a 49.8 percent lead when the early results came out and never looked back.

Answers are coming tonight and you can catch all the results on the PNow website.

Mentioning District 7, somebody texted me early in the morning a few days ago from a number I didn’t recognize and asked me who they should NOT vote for in the three-way race.

Come on, I know a set up when I see one.