The Wray effect?
It would be easy at this point to over-state the effect voter dissatisfaction with how the current City Council handled the affair concerning former Police Chief David Wray.
Yvonne Johnson was elected mayor, and she is very much the embodiment of the current council.
But I don't think you can look at the results favoring Trudy Wade in District 5 (unseating long-time council member Sandy Carmany) and Mary Rakestraw (who it appears took an at-large seat) and not factor in the Wray saga.
How much is attributable to Wade and Rakestraw having names that have been in the news a lot (name recognition) and how much of it is attributable to their positions on Wray we don't have a sense for right at the moment. But thinking here at N+R HQ is that the Wray affair played some part. After all, Carmany had a name that was in the paper a lot and has been a fairly popular figure in the district but she still lost.
Joe Wilson in District 3 lost depsite campaigning on the Wray affair, but he was pretty well outspent by his opponent, Zack Matheny.
Those are some thoughts were starting with as my colleagues sit down to write their stories for tomorrow. What are your thoughts?
Update: Some thoughts from the blogosphere:
- *The CA: "If there is good news, it is that Rakestraw and Wade won't get rolled."
- *Fecund Stench ... has posted video today from an incident we heard about that happened at Gate City Baptist Church. Our man-about-town Jim Schlosser had this to report about the incident earlier:
"At Precinct 66's polling place at Gate City Baptist Church on Hilltop Road, police were called after an argument broke out between a campaign worker and a voter. The voter accused the worker of being too close to the polling place.
"There was some cursing involved," police Lt. Brian Cheek said. "Another lady heard the cursing (and) was upset, and apparently the campaign worker was abusive to her, too."
A polling official asked the worker to leave.
- *Doug Clark: "In contrast, Greensboro candidates have gotten plenty of time in the spotlight, appearing at numerous forums and drawing lots of media coverage. It still may not produce a huge voter turnout, but the people who chose to vote today should have been well-informed. I have no doubt they will select a capable and interesting City Council."