Date: 5/18/05, morning
Place: Squirrel Hill
All dialogue guaranteed verbatim:
So, Pittsburgh mayoral Democratic primary winner (and shoe-in for November) Bob O'Connor walks into Starbucks to get some caffeine. He looks around and greets a random patron (as politicians are wont to do).
O'Connor: "Hi. How are you doing?"
Random Patron: "Terrible! You won and now we're all in trouble!"
[Snickers and laughter from the other patrons.]
O'Connor leaves with tail between his legs.
7 comments:
I suspect he'll take some comfort in the 2-to-1 victory he enjoyed over his nearest competitor.
The majority of democrats voted against O'Connor. Makes me yearn for run-offs
Believe me, it's not the outcome I would have wanted, and there are good arguments to be made for runoffs.
But in a three-way race (seven, if you count the "lesser" Democratic candidates) the guy got 48 percent of the vote, last time I checked the results. I suspect he'd win one-on-one against any of the other candidates, and I suspect he would have won even if they Peduto and Lamb had run good campaigns, which they didn't.
Rather than have run-off elections, we should institute IRV (Instant Runoff Voting) like Cambridge, MA and other communities have. This would be even better in Presidential Elections (although the Democrats and Republicans would probably never go for it) as it would eliminate the so-called "third party spoiler" by allowing people to truly vote their consciences and not worry about "wasting" their vote.
For more information on IRV, see http://www.instantrunoff.com.
Post a Comment