Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Minidecision '07: (Hopefully) No More Mr. Nice Guy

Joe Finley's bid to unseat longtime incumbent Mayor Don Plusquellec appears at an end. Finley made a surprisingly good showing -- 47% to 53%, translating into almost exactly a thousand votes. Given reports of the Mayor's solid field operation and the general ineptitude of Finley's campaign, the Don can't feel too good about the close call. People and obviously discontent -- unfortunately about forces largely out of the Mayor's control.

By the way, yesterday the Governor robo-called the House of Pho on behalf of Plusquellec. What a difference a year makes. Even by this time last year, Plusquellec's support for the party's nominee for Governor was tepid at best. Now Strickland is intervening on the Mayor's behalf when the U buying downtown property and offering campaign help. Good to know it's all bygones.

In other SummitCo election news, Deandre Forney squeaked out a four-vote victory over incumbent Renee Green for Ward 4 City Council. The Green Mayor's race is set with (Republican) Dick Norton against (Democrat) Andy Padrutt in the nominally nonpartisan race. Barberton will have a new mayor as Council President Bob Genet beat incumbent Randy Hart handily, 57-43%.

Much of the rest of the primary, such as it was, went as expected.

2 comments:

Ben said...

stunning result that Finley came so close.....

Anonymous said...

Your are right Ben. Pho, 47% does not equal ineptitude but 53% does. Why don't you run next time. Finley stayed on message, had volunteers throughout the city and didn't go into the gutter like Plusquellic did on Monday.