Radio Free Newport

When Psychobilly Democrat decided to shut down his blog (a loss for Akron and fans of smart political commentary), I offered him the opportunity to post guest columns here on occasion. Here’s his first — a commentary on the (ridiculous, wasteful) mayoral recall election in Akron. Thanks, PD!

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Conceding defeat shortly after 9pm, Warner Mendenhall told the Beacon Journal that his delirious campaign had “sent an important message to city hall”.

Ironically, Warner had no message for Akron’s voters, the very people he needed to persuade that Don Plusquellic should be recalled. Akron’s voters, bright lot they are, responded by rejecting the recall by a 3-to-1 margin. The message was that Don could kick Warner’s ass at the ballot box even though voters have recently defeated Don’s initiatives.

But Warner and his fans haven’t learned their lesson. At his thrashing party tonight, Warner announced, to a crowd that was cheering “we’re winners”, that his wife will run this fall for city council at-large. If she plans on running in the Democratic primary, she’ll have to take on Mendenhall’s silent partner, Mike Williams, and at least three other Democrats. If she runs as a Republican, well, she’ll get a pass to the general election where she’ll be trounced.

During his victory speech tonight, the mayor spent ten minutes thanking everyone from Akron’s voters to the guy who helped design the website. He then vociferously defended Councilwoman Kelli Crawford, who’s been attacked by Mendenhall supporters for her ardent support of the mayor.

It’s one thing to disagree with an opponent. It’s another to flat-out lie like nothing more than breathing. The Mendenbots have said Kelli doesn’t live in her ward (false, and demonstrably so with three minutes of Google research) and that her house was purchased by the local Democratic Party (false again, and just a bizarre claim period). But this is what you get with Mendenhall and his troop: they believe what they want, regardless of irrefutable proof otherwise.

It was this sort of rigid belief system that brought Akron to today’s recall election, and it’s the primary reason I’m not at all surprised Mendenhall’s wife will run for city council. Indeed, I’ve heard he planned to roll out an entire slate on Thursday, the day petitions for council are due to the Board of Elections. No word yet if that’s still on.

Can you imagine the credibility gap those folks start with even before they try to repeat the recall campaign vicariously through their own? What will their message sound like? How will it differ from Change Akron Now?

Their message will echo the hollow complaints of Mendenhall’s quixotic quest, and they’ll lose (see point 2 below), but will they come back again and again?

I’ll give Warner’s slate this much: at least they have the courage to run in a regular candidate election. That’s far more than Mendenhall could muster. He wanted a shortcut to his seat at the table.

Random miscellany:

- The canvass is already up (wow, that was fast) and it shows Ward 8, the most Republican in the city, had 2200 more voters than any other ward. Of those 5993 voters, 82% voted against the recall.

- The recall failed in all 10 wards. The recall failed in all 153 precincts. Repeat, all 153 precincts.

- Turnout city-wide was 21%. In Ward 8, it was 35%. Ward 5’s 8% was the lowest.

- Back to Ward 8. I saw a couple walking lists over the past few days of known anti-recallers. Most lists were 50-50 splits b/n Democrats and Republicans. At least in that particular ward, party ID made little difference in recall support.