Sorry if the flurry of numbers and stats put you to sleep, but there were some misleading comments backing up an endorsement that I couldn't let just slide by. Especially since in a previous blog entry delving into the numbers on the last election I already went through this, and I really hate repeating myself.

A former city councilmember, Tom McCoy, painted a picture of sore losers, a new generation of "Longmonters", and a supposed mandate from the majority of voters. Now for those pesky facts. Only two races actually won a majority, Mayor Lange and oddly enough McCoy's son Sean McCoy. The rest were pluralities, where as the winner did not break 50.1%, also known as a majority. Hey, I can't help it if people don't know the difference.

You know something else that's not talked about a lot? 40,051 total votes were cast for Mayor and City Council members, the " new generation of city councilpeople" McCoy speaks of received 18,453 votes. The other candidates received 21,598 votes. Now there's a majority, 53.9% - 46.1%, a majority against Benker, Levison, McCoy, and Hansen. So where's this so-called mandate? You won't find it because it doesn't exist. Nice try though.

So based on that " fuzzy math" one should throw their full support behind Richard Juday, right? And apparently Longmont is about to become a player in the space industry as Mr. Juday could bring primary jobs here from his "fresh contacts" as a retired NASA employee. This would be funny if it wasn't so offensive coming from a former councilmember who was no great friend to our aviation community.

Remember how I once wrote how some endorsements help, and others don't? If you can make those numbers and statements justify your vote, then I guess you have your candidate.

©2008 Chris Rodriguez/Wrongmont.Com
(Chris Rodriguez is a Longmont resident, and the editor and publisher of Wrongmont.Com, a community website that raises local issues to increase public awareness and interest)