Was It a Big Box Blunder?

No contest, that sums up the Mayoralty campaign for Podunk for 2005. Herb Pond took an early lead in the counting on Saturday night and never looked back, as Podunkians chose to stay the course that Herb has laid out for them over the last three years. The competition for mayor, which at times threatened to deteriorate into a bout of partisanship not seen in Podunk for years, became a tad underwhelming by the time the votes were counted. There was no mass migration of voters away from Pond’s message of continuity at City Council, his wish to keep his team together was for the most part, granted by the voters of Podunk

Pond easily turned aside the challenge from Gloria Rendell, winning the Mayoralty with a comfortable 2,684 vote margin. The final tallies gave Herb Pond 3,377 votes and Gloria Rendell 693. The margin surely a sign that the people of Podunk had not been convinced that all was as dire as Ms. Rendell had portrayed at the all candidates meeting, preferring to accept the Mayor’s cautious optimism that the worst was past, over Rendells’ worries that worst may be yet to come.

His advertising blitz of Friday promised a Yes to development and A Yes to shopping choice. And if the Rendell camp wishes to look for one issue that perhaps harmed their chances the most, it might very well have been the shopping options for Podunkians. Never mind fiscal responsibility and infrastructure degradation, Podunkians as many on the hackingthemainframe forums would say, apparently want their big box stores and woe be the politician to stand in the way.

As reported in our Podunk debate posting, the challenger did not exactly come out strongly in favour of welcoming the big box stores into the community, a stand that gave the Mayor an opening to proclaim that if you’re against Big Box stores then don’t vote for me. As the election has shown, we voted with our shopping carts it seems.

The issue seemed to catch the Rendell camp by surprise by the end of the campaign, a letter late in the campaign to the Nivlac portal, as well as comments for the Daily News did some damage control but obviously not enough to erase the perception that candidate might not be as development minded as many Podunkians would like.

We at Podunk didn’t really expect the challenger to defeat the congenial mayor, though we were surprised by the margin of his victory. We thought that the race might be a little tighter (we felt for sure that the Rendell camp would have at least busted the 1,000 vote line), but in the end that the Mayor would still have won with a fairly convincing margin.

The reasoning was quite simple; this mayor has managed to create a pretty good name for himself in the public eye around the city. Frequently requested for public charity events, he easily engages in the gift of gab that successful politicians the world over strive for. For some of his occasional quirks, most folks here seem to think he has done an admirable job of running the city under rather trying times.

The secrecy issue at city hall, while good for a lot of talk around town, never seemed to stick to the mayor. Despite the well documented local issues over the last year that have seemed to pop up unannounced, with nary a word of public debate. It’s a testimony to Pond’s visibility in the community and his sense of civic boosterism, that he could make what could have been a major issue nothing but an inconvenience of the campaign.

The fact his margin of victory was so large, lays to rest for now the issue of a secret cabal of councilors and bureaucrats at City Hall, meeting in dark rooms with whispered plans for the community. It seems to be a campaign issue that while tantalizing for the voters, in the end just didn’t seem to amount to much.

As we said on November 10th, can an election be lost in fifteen minutes? That first introduction to the challenger at that mayoralty debate came at the same time as the major development on Highway 16 was announced. By appearing lukewarm at best and possibly against a project that for all intents and purposes is a go, the challenger found herself on the wrong end of an issue that she really needn’t have had to be on. The fact that the project would be approved on the departing council’s watch, gave her an opportunity to just go with the Podunk voter flow and avoid a tactical blunder and not give her opponent some ground to work with.

That issue coupled with her constant recitation of the downside of Podunk’s present situation didn’t work in synch with the general wish of Podunkians for better times. The Mayor played up the possibilities and the opportunities, the challenger the past controversies and the less than positive present.

Whether Podunkians voted with facts or just wishful thinking, they made their decision that Pond was the person to lead them through this latest rough stretch and hopefully on to the golden years so many say are just around the corner.

In the end, Podunk chose to look at the glass half full, rather than half empty. Returning Mayor Pond for another three year term, it will prove be an interesting period of time for Podunk. The Mayor and his council have many struggles ahead of them, as even the Mayor said during the campaign; we’re not out of the woods yet.

For the next three years, the guy at the front of the line out of those dark and dangerous woods will be Herb Pond. He has the flashlight, and for now we’re all falling in behind for the hike.