11:12 a.m. - Going for lunch with T. Diane Bellamy Small's support group.  She was the one challenger who out polled an incumbent.  She wants to talk.

More voting stats:

David Hoggard (all up)   6,908

Jeff Nimmer (all up)       2,939 - Out of Race

Joe Rahenkamp (all up) 2,408 - Out of Race

That is a total of 12,255 available votes.  Tom Phillips came in third with 14,244 votes.  I would be dreaming if I thought I could get all of them.  Arispe carried 3,835 and is in distant 6th place - might he throw them my way?

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Mr. Sun... Sun... Mr. Golden Sun.....Won't you please rain down on me? - Raffi

The king of cut-and-paste pays me a great compliment and pegged the rest of my campaign. 

 9:48 a.m.  - Burckley is on my front porch wanting to talk, developing.....

10:03 a.m. - Burckley is off my front porch - he ain't gonna quit, nor am I.  His yard sign that he brought over last night is not in my yard.

The question in my mind is this?  Was the overwhelming support of the three incumbents truly a vote for the status quo, or was it a simply second opportunity for people voice their support for the new stadium by voting for those on Council that supported its construction?

Now that baseball is over, will the incumbent votes stick in the general election?

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Last night I was gathering my yard signs from the polling places for re-use.  One of my last stops was Fire Station #14 way out at the north end of Summit Avenue.  This area has been very hard hit with layoff, lots of mill workers.

I was putting my sign in the car and getting ready to head home because the polls were closing in 15 minutes.  An old Ford van pulled up with a family inside so I waited to introduce myself and ask for their vote. 

Mom and her pretty four-year-old daughter got out first and walked toward me.  I gave her my standard make-a-good-impression-before-they-vote introduction:  "May I introduce myself?  My name is David Hoggard and I am running for City Council, if you are voting to make some changes I would appreciate your vote"

She responded, "We need something to change, my husband was laid off nine months ago and there aren't any jobs for him. We're not sure what we are going to do".  Her husband went around to get their six-month-old out of the car seat and walked over to join us, he was the quiet sort.  I asked them where they live and where he used to work.  As they related more of their situation a weight came down and landed square on my shoulders, I actually felt it.

As they walked toward the polls the mom turned and asked, "What can you do to help?"  Still adjusting to the weight, my standard economic development response seemed superficial.  I simply answered, "My best".  She said that that is all that she could hope for and then went to vote with her husband.

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Still processing last nights results to try and figure out how I can unseat Tom Phillips.  One glaring statistic hit me as I started looking for support to expand upon.

Total ballots cast (all races): 33,263

Total ballots cast (mayor):    27,646

5,617 voters came to the polls and did not cast a vote for any of the three candidates for mayor.  This is not to take anything from Mayor Holliday's stunning win with 71% of the votes, but there is certainly some unrest out there that can be tapped.

As for my race: Burckley was here at the Cypress Lounge last night because the place was crawling with news crews and reporters.  I told him that neither one of us has a chance without the other's votes - he agreed.  He can't have mine ... there is no way I nor my crew could possibly support him because of his firebrand style.  Bill had his day but ultimately he is unelectable.

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