St. Petersburg registered voters have until 7PM tonight to cast their ballot for mayor and 5 City Council races.
There will be no prediction in this space on who will be the victor tonight. All indications going into today is that it will be a close race, though we can say with certainty that as of this writing, over 22,000 registered voters have sent in their ballots by mail, nearly 38% of those who requested those ballots before today's election.
Though newspaper endorsements have lost their influence over the years, there is still the belief that the St. Pete Times Editorial page still carries a punch when it comes to their choices.
Today's editorial, entitled, "Vote for steady progress", is again a variation on the theme that that page has carried since the general election in early September – that essentially a vote for Kathleen Ford would be a disaster for the city.
In the editorial, the Times writes almost mournfully about the 'overreliance' on voting by mail (which is probably accurate) by Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark. But the Times chides Clark in reference to Ford's now weeks old gaffe uttered on Bubba the Love Sponge's show:
More than 20,000 St. Petersburg voters already have cast ballots, meaning as much as half the vote could be in before the polls open today. Thousands of those ballots were cast before mayoral candidate Kathleen Ford used a derogatory racial term in reference to Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis III on a radio show, then dodged reporters for days before illogically claiming she was set up. How many of those voters would like their ballots back?
The editorial concludes by looking at past history as a (hopeful) indication of tonight's results:
St. Petersburg voters usually favor steady progress over abrupt changes in direction. For that tradition to continue, voters who have been largely silent in this campaign season have to go to the polls today and be counted.
The contempt for Ford and her supporters has been pretty consistent on that page. If Ms. Ford is victorious tonight, a sure loser other than her opponent will be that editorial page.
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2009.