Primary Numbers
If there are two things to take away from Tuesday’s primary here they are. First, there is something to be said about county organizations being able to deliver their candidates. Second, despite a 10-point Democratic lead, this November’s elections have the potential to be very competitive.
Look at the numbers. With 98 percent of the vote in there were more than 71,000 votes cast. Nearly 38,000 voters pulled a Democratic ballot. 30,000 pulled a Republican ballot and about 3,500 just voted in a referendum. Despite that 8,000-ticket advantage both incumbent Greg Ballard and Democratic challenger Melina Kennedy got practically the same number of votes. Kennedy received 28,352 votes (nearly a 10,000 vote drop off), while Ballard received 28,254 votes (less than 1,200 vote drop off).
In the race for the at-larges, if you were to take them all in the order of most votes received the order is as follows: Joanne Sanders (25,519), Leroy Robinson (21,885), Barb Malone (21,392), Michael Kalscheur (20,526)and John Barth (20,349); two Democrats and two Republicans. The next finisher is Jackie Cissel (20,182) who beats Zach Adamson (18,923).
Interesting, n’est ce pa?
Now of course this is a primary and the same people who come out in a general election aren’t necessarily the same people who come out in a general. And then there’s the question of what will the Ron Gibson and Sam Carson supporters do as well as who will the Libertarians field at their convention later this month? There’s also how well the individual Councilors do and what are the big news issues of the day?
So many questions and we have until November to answer them. Let the political games begin. I’m looking forward to playing.
