Political ads have flooded mailboxes and airwaves and a forum or two have taken place, but — aside from a flap over glaring inaccuracies in a pro-Baker ad — nothing too crazy has transpired.
Apparently, the quiet is benefiting Kriseman, who recently polled a little ahead of Baker in a St. Pete Polls survey taken Thursday and released to the public on Friday.
It's a slim margin — 46.8 to 40 percent for Kriseman and Baker, respectively, with 7.2 percent of voters still unsure.
The poll is a sample of some 635 voters in St. Petersburg who registered by Sept. 12 of this year. Some 35 percent of those polled had already voted by mail.* The poll was weighted to more accurately reflect demographic proportions of the city's voting public as well as those of the population that turned out for the primary.
This most recent poll is the first one that suggests Kriseman may be in the lead — the first poll of its kind to be released to the public, anyway, as depending on who commissions the polling, there can often be an advantage to keeping a lid on the results.
St. Pete Polls has been the only entity to release polling for the St. Petersburg mayoral and council races. Ahead of the primary, polling consistently showed Baker as significantly ahead of Kriseman; ahead of election day, some local observers said the only question was whether Baker would make it to 50 percent plus one or not, thereby avoiding a runoff. Polling suggested that was a possibility, if not a likelihood.
But it did not turn out that way; Kriseman beat Baker, albeit by significantly less than a percentage point.
(An eleventh-hour endorsement from one Barack Obama probably helped the incumbent.)
So while the polling can give us a good idea of where the candidates stand, it should probably not be taken as gospel — especially 18 days out from the Nov. 7 election.
St. Pete Polls also offered insights on which parts of the city support whom.
Downtown St. Pete voters overwhelmingly support Kriseman 53.3 to 33.3 percent (no surprise there); Midtown voters polled went for Baker 47.5 over 41 percent (again, not surprising); northeast residents supported Baker 53.3 percent to Kriseman's 42.1 percent; west and south St. Pete went for Kriseman (49.8/44 and 50.8/40, respectively).
The survey also asked about St. Pete City Council candidates in the three races on the ballot.
In District 2, an open seat Councilman Jim Kennedy is terming out of, Brandi Gabbard is leading Barclay Harless 42.1 percent to 24.7 percent, with more than 30 percent of voters unsure who to support. (Learn about these candidates here.)
As for District 4, incumbent Councilwoman Darden Rice is unsurprisingly leading challenger Jerick Johnston 56.1 percent to 23.7 percent. (Read about this race here.)
As for District 6 (the seat Councilman Karl Nurse is terming out of), Gina Driscoll leads Justin Bean 44.7 percent to 26.6 percent. (Find out more here.)
And, finally, the poll suggests overwhelming support for a measure that would allow the Vinoy to build a parking structure on the site of the resort at no cost to taxpayers (more on that here).
*An early version of this story indicated that there was no early voting in the general election. This is not the case, and early voting indeed begins Oct. 28 and runs through Nov. 5. We regret the error.
This article appears in Oct 19-26, 2017.