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Edited on Sat Nov-05-05 04:00 PM by mdguss
I voted for the Democrat, but I wasn't too terribly disappointed that he lost. He challenged an effective Democratic Mayor in the primary and gave us a blood bath that nobody needed. His running was not a good thing for the party. That said, I voted for him because I didn't want to give into the Republican plan.
Despite losing the Mayor's office, Democrats (thank God) retook the majority on the city council (elected city wide with the top five vote getters winning).
The three Republicans that currently form the majority on the council either didn't run (or were defeated in the Republican primary for Mayor). They're gone, which is good news.
What it basically comes down to is that Jennifer Dougherty was a very effective Mayor, but stepped on a lot of toes to get things done.
The Republican President Pro Temp of the City Council (was a Democrat when he was elected four years ago, but switched in 2004) was mad because Dougherty defeated his friend, former Republican Mayor Jim Grimes, in 2001. From election night 2001 on, he vowed not to cooperate. He did everything he could to undermine the Dougherty administration; from calling citizens "idiots" at public meetings to routinely calling the Mayor a "racist" and a "dictator." It was a first class performance.
He was aided by the conservative Republican on the council who did things like introduce a resolution supporting "President Bush and his policies," and have Ten Commandments rallies. The said councilman moved to Georgia this spring, but failed to resign. Resigning would've given the Mayor a majority and they couldn't let that happen.
Anyway, these two looked around for somebody to run against the Mayor. The only person they could find was Joe Baldi--a nice guy and a moderate Republican--who voted with them to form the council majority. But Baldi was a three term councilman. He's been around forever; he gets re-elected, but never overwhelmingly. There wasn't a lot of confidence that he'd be able to defeat Dougherty.
So the conservative and President Pro Temp of council decide to go looking for another candidate. They settle on former Mayor Ron Young (Democrat--a conservative one, but a loyal Democrat nonetheless). They really didn't care about his party affiliation; they just wanted to defeat Jennifer. The idea was to have a bruising Democratic primary, leave our party split and elect Joe Baldi. That almost happened...
There was one problem with that: Ron Young hasn't lived in the city for a decade. The Charter required a three year residency to run for Mayor. The conservative Republican sponsored a Charter amendment (all it takes is three votes to change our charter--bad news, as they played a bunch of political games with the charter this year). The amendment reduced the residency requirement to one-year. A bunch of people showed up to speak out against it. Joe Baldi cast the deciding vote in favor of the amendment to reduce the residency requirement. Poetic justice would be served later. The Mayor, citing public dissatisfaction, vetoed it. She shouldn't have vetoed it, and it was the first of many mistakes on her part that led to her downfall.
The former Mayor, Ron Young, who wanted to run in the primary sued in federal court (then he ran a campaign complaining about how the Mayor was getting sued all the time and how much money it was costing us. Just one of many reasons I'm not too terribly disappointed that he lost even though I voted for him). Young won his suit. The law was thrown out--eliminating the residency requirement totally for this year's election.
In the chaos that ensued, non-resident Jeff Holtzinger, a former city engineer and moderately conservative Republican, filed for office. As a political novice (and really nice guy), nobody gave him a chance. He beat Baldi by 20 votes in the primary despite being outspent 25 to 1. Baldi got poetic justice for his vote on the residency requirement (which has since been changed to one year).
Ron Young ran a campaign calling Jennifer Dougherty a horrible Mayor and a liar. Unfortunately Dougherty struck back and the campaign devolved into a mudslinging brute-fest between the two candidates. It reminded people of the Mayor's fights with the council (which were justified, but which people didn't like). It undermined Dougherty's support.
Sensing the election was close, Dougherty went back to the black book. Young's son, a former City Councilman, was listed in the book seized by the police. Dougherty's predecessor took actions that seemed to be designed to protect the junior Young. It undid his administration. Ron Young was threatened by the madam in police interviews, but never listed in the book. Dougherty foolishly tried to claim he was in the black book. It was a bad move, and one that people agree cost her the election. Young won the primary with 55% of the vote. The two aforementioned councilmen were seen on the steps of city hall high-fiving each other after they saw the results of the Democratic primary.
A group of liberal Democrats (pissed at Young for challenging her in the primary and upset with Dougherty for running a poor campaign) withheld their support from Young. They voted for Holtzinger en mass. A group of Republicans (supporters of the two councilmen who made a bunch of backroom moves to defeat the Mayor) voted for Young. Support didn't line up in a traditional way.
Holtzinger won, but he won with a coalition of conservative Republicans, moderates and liberal Democrats. Holtzinger got the liberals because he ran a relatively anti-growth campaign. Young had big business Republicans and yellow dog Democrats. A close election, but justice was probably served.
This is example A in how to not run a party. The central committee was sadly absent from putting pressure on candidates not to run. State leadership stayed out of it (neither O'Malley or Duncan showed off the leadership skills they supposidly have).
What probably should've of happened is neither Jennifer or Ron Young run and the party put up Councilwoman Marcia Hall instead. That would've been a way to keep the Mayor's office. What happened was a total disaster (from the party's point of view) that all sides bear partial responsibility for.
As for Holtzinger, he'll be a good Mayor. He may be a Republican, but he's a nice guy. He's very smart. He's honest. And he's capable of doing a good job. He has a really good council to work with too.
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