Pond Spoke, Podunk Listened!

In the end, Podunkians listened to their mayor; they stayed his course and returned not only him, but many of the councilors he had said he wanted to bring back to work with him. As the voting wrapped up on Saturday night, Podunk had decided to keep Herb's team together with the addition of a few progressive subs.

Despite much talk of a column of lefties ready to usurp control of Podunk's council of governance, the end result looks pretty well as it did before Podunk went to the polls. As the tallies were counted up, there was no slate of activists sent to sack the offices of City Hall, we weren't singing the Internationale today, nor are there wild eyed radical Rendellistas storming the steps of City Hall demanding widespread change.

One incumbent, Jack Rudolph, was denied his place, replaced by a hopefully progressive new voice in Sheila Gordon-Payne. Podunkians saw something they liked in Ms. Gordon-Paynes' campaign, as the newcomer to municipal politics received the second highest vote count on Saturday. At 2,017 votes, she was only 46 votes shy of the vote leader incumbent, Ken Cote. Not a bad introduction to a public looking for someone to be more representative and inquisitive on council.

The other vacancy that of Paul Kennedy's chair, was filled by Joy Thorkelson a long time union activist and well known social commentator. Not too unfamiliar with some of the points of view of the departing Kennedy. It was Thorkelson's vote count that bumped Rudolph out of office, as she collected 1,496 votes to Rudolph's 1,408. Thorkelson could be that bit of social consciousness that seems to be missing from time to time at City Hall.

The net result of this election would seem to this observer anyways, to be pretty well status quo with perhaps a chance for a more investigative and vocal council to come in the next term.

The idea of a silent force of leftists sneaking around arranging slates of candidates seems a tad far fetched, for if it was true then somebody forgot to watch the "get out the vote" video. The perceived "union" or "leftie" candidates bunched up basically in the middle of the pack, no doubt bleeding votes from one another, rather than the candidates who may have been more to the right of the political spectrum. DeBartolo, Bowles and Casteilli were all within one hundred votes or so of each other, not high enough to grab a seat, not low enough to be considered irrelevant.

To be honest we at the Podunk were rather surprised to see the high number of returning councilors get another shot at fame. It did not seem far fetched to think that up to four of the most recent council, would be thanked for their service and sent off with lovely parting gifts. Instead, the incumbents seemed to overcome some thin skins and lethargic campaigning at times, to still re-capture their seats.

The large slate of candidates no doubt assisted the incumbents, splitting that vote count into any number of directions. Mitch Myers captured the imagination of the youth vote by attracting 1068 votes. Not enough for a serious shot at a council seat, but surely indicative of having hit a note or two with the voters.

It's the remaining numbers from the rest of the seventeen candidates that offer up an interesting study. If you total up the votes for everyone below the Castelli line of 1007 votes, you come up with 3,215 votes up for grabs. If the names of Dalton, Fitzpatrick, McLean, Rolston, Cook and Schiese had not been on the ballots, would there have been a major change of the chairs at council? It's a question that we may never know an answer for, but it isn't much of a stretch to think that those 3,215 votes might have been more enough to move a few of the mid pack challengers past the post.

That being said, everyone deserves the opportunity to present their views to the public and for the most part these seventeen candidates did an admirable job of putting their points across. It was a widely diverse group of candidates who offered up their services and subjected themselves up for scrutiny, something that can't be an easy process. For that they should be commended for their civic mindedness.

However, for all the talk of change, the new Podunk council is not that far removed from the old Podunk council. In the end, the final words always goes to the voter and the words this year were stay the course. It will be interesting to watch how the newcomers try to find their niche in this council. We wonder if there will be a more concentrated effort in the future, to at least be more transparent in civic dealings in the next three years.

If the newcomers want to hit a home run in their first term, one simple tactic might do the trick. Keeping the mayor and the returning four councilors inclined to keep the public more informed, might go a long way to providing the best of public service.