Preliminary results

How about them Carrboro results! I am so please with the way the election worked out. Congratulations to Mark Chilton, Lydia Lavelle, Joal Bruon, and Dan Coleman. Well done to all the newly elected Carrboro officials.

My congratulations also to Mark, Joal, Dan - and particularly Lydia, whom I've not yet met. You should be especially proud of the fact that you topped the poll as a rookie!

These results should lay to rest a number of sagas that have played out in Carrboro in the past couple of years.

Dan, you have yourself an elective mandate. Well done. I think it safe to say that you've had one of the longest and most tumultuous 'baptisms of fire' that any new occupant of public office could have expected.

But 'fire' goes with the territory of one who chooses to be at the forefront - and no-one would ever pretend that the contrary is true with you!

For myself, all that has gone before is now past. I look forward to more engagment with you on matters relating to Carrboro - be it in person, in forums or on the radio. Doesn't mean we'll always agree, or that you'll like my questions. But the discussions will be about current and future issues, not the past.

Mark, at least on the provisional results, you won in every category and precinct. I'm one of those who does call Brian a friend. My commiserations go to him. But, Mark, you have proven that you can face all of Carrboro and say that you truly represent all of them - the North-East too. I know that you have the magnanimity and vision calmly to work with that mandate and help to heal the divisions that are so overdue repairing.

Joal. What can I say. Hurrah!

Sharon. You have shown in the past two years that you are willing to get involved. Take heart from what Mark has said elsewhere. It sometimes takes a couple of elections to attain that public office you seek. Stick with it!

Katrina. I love your pastries. And I know that Carrboro will learn to love all the other qualities you have to offer - and I'm going out on a limb here with another friend. It's always tough losing. But in the weeks to come, consider what Sharon has been doing. Take a leaf out of her book. Hmm?

The annexation/appointment argument is over. The voters have spoken. Lydia received almost as many votes from your neighbors as you did. Let's see magnanimity on all sides. I would like to see more engagment and openness from those in authority. But the mark of a healthy 'opposition' is that it also takes a path of engagement. Maybe?

Frank and Chuck, I don't know you. Draw heart from having learned more about the town you care for, and having given its townsfolk the opportunity to meet you. This really is a situation where everyone wins something. Come back for more!

There is a tradition in England, which seems appropriate here - where there has been a particularly bruising process. We congratulate the winners. We lay to rest the past, we look forward with hope to the future, and we encourage leadership which represents everyone, includes everyone, and is open to all points of view.

We commiserate with those who were not elected, and we encourage them to remain interested, and to take seriously the job of continuing to look over the shoulders of their fellows who achieved office - to ensure that they stick to their promises, and continue to engage with all of their constituents, regardless of their views.

Good luck to us all in the two years ahead.

A hearty congratulations to Mark, Lydia, Joal, and Dan!

It looks like Katrina might challenge the results, however. The Daily Tar Heel is reporting,

But Ryan said she might challenge the vote totals today because of several discrepancies in vote totals throughout the night.

The problems developed because for most of the night the North Carrboro precinct reported 1,054 voters, according to the Orange County Board of Elections. That figure represents more than 44 percent voter turnout.

Only one other precinct reported more than 25 percent voter turnout, the small Weaver Dairy Satellite polling place.

And Ryan said she was at the North Carrboro precinct location as the polls closed. The last voter there, Rick Tanner, said he was voter number 517, according to his voter form. The vote total was later amended to 517.

Both Ryan and Sharon Cook, who finished fifth, had problems with the absentee vote totals, which they said were low.

"There's still a possibility that there might be a recount," Ryan said.

She said an attorney friend, Jill Cheek, will speak with the State Board of Elections this morning to discuss challenging the results.

It looks like the only candidate that the Chamber of Commerce endorsed may have won. I believe this is their first endorsed candidate to win in their new era of sustainability. It will be interesting to track how Matt Czajkowski presence on the Council reflects the CoC's new-found commitment to sustainability.

Mark, you must not have read the Chamber's write-ups. If you did, you would see that they didn't endorse and you would also note what they said about candidates Foy, Strom and Ward in Chapel Hill, and Chilton and Lavelle in Carrboro.

Well, they didn't ENDORSE but they did "endorse".

And to think I used to hear high school kids call Southern Village residents "communist". Those 2 Republicans would be surprised I'm sure to get all those vote from communists.

I think Matt C's strong showing (win or not) is attributable to a number of things, including but not limited to targeting Republican/conservative voters.

To start, think we have to ask about the implications of the following:

1. Jim Ward was top vote-getter without having spent a (new) cent. It may have been a successful strategy for Republicans just to get out their vote, but beyond that, what effect - if any - did candidate-specific campaigning, in the various different kinds of media, have?

2. It's Cam Hill, rather than Sally or Bill or Jim, whose seat may go to Czajkowski. Was this a function of odd-pattern endorsements, something about Cam's record or how he comes across to voters, or what?

3. The media focused rather specifically on downtown/Franklin St. revitalization. Does this suggest that voters are sufficiently upset about that issue that they made distinctions they might not otherwise have made?

There must be other factors I'm not now considering, beyond these. I do think there's a word-of-mouth effect in a community as small as ours, particularly among those who are active enough to go to the polls. But hard to say what that effect accomplished, this time around.

Yes, congrats to all the winners, esp in my domicile of Carrboro, Mark, Lydia, Joal and Dan (in order of vote totals... :) ). I'm especially excited for Lydia. I think she will really by a great addition and provide a healthy, positive dynamic to the board and town. Also congrats to the school board candidates. And congrats to all those who didn't win for having the gumption to stick their necks out and risk joining Nearly Headless Nick (for those who know Harry Potter...). Lastly, thanks to Alex Zaffron for all his great service to the town of Carrboro. He stuck his neck out many, many times for the town of Carrboro.

I think that Matt unseating Cam was definitely because voters were unhappy with Cam. Working with Penny's campaign, I talked to a lot of voters, and to them Cam comes across as cocky and condescending. He is also seen as anti-University. One voter told me that Cam and Bill treat the council as their own private boys club, complete with a "No girls allowed" sign. Whether these assessments are fair or not, that is what I consistently heard from voters.

The go-go growthers are always looking to get a seat. Often they fall a little short or get the last place slot available. The vote totals for their candidates always seem to hover around the cut-off mark. This time they slipped over the line. Possibly they understood the power of the single-shot strategy.

I think it's fair that this segment of the citizenry has representation. If we used proportional representation ( a much fairer system than what we have now), this significant portion of the citizenry would be represented more often.

It's the same situation as the rural conservative vote in the county. It is a significant portion of the electorate and deserves representation. It makes for a better democracy. We all benefit when significant minorities have a place at the table. There issues are advocated for and they may persuade others of the merits of their proposals. Yet they are not in a position to dominate the issues which is as it should be. It also defuses some tension, because at least the views of the significant minority are communicated and people feel represented.

If downtown in particular is the issue, Cam definitely doesn't come across well (IMHO). Quotes like "[Parking] just really isn't the issue downtown" (from the N&O June 28) when he is blocking what downtown business owners are asking for just isn't helpful.

I also choose to take Jim's top total as a sign that this Council needs to back up their rhetoric with actual votes on issues like Lot 5.

"And to think I used to hear high school kids call Southern Village residents 'communist'"

There's a mix of people here as the housing prices have ranged from $120K for a 900SF condo to $1,000,000 for one of the larger more traditional houses. My unscientific analysis of the situation is that there are many people of means drawn to Chapel Hill because of the school system and in spite of the political reputation of the town. What I can't figure out is why anyone would move into a neighborhood with a centrally located school specifically designed to be walkable and then drive your kids a couple of blocks to school every day in an SUV?

Mostly I love the neighborhood, and the ability to walk to Weaver Street and Scrogg's, and all of the other businesses, but it can be trying at times. For example, my father-in-law's truck broke down on the way out the neighborhood last Thursday, and the mechanic had no room on his lot until Monday, so we just left it legally parked on a side street near my house. (We were taking some donations to the PTA thrift store.) By Saturday a neighbor had tracked my father-in-law and was calling him up, and by Monday morning, the police had been called and were waiting by the truck.

Now that you mention it, the presumption that I have to get permission from my neighbors to park a car on the street over the weekend does seem a little communist :-)

I posted a response to Tom Jensen above, but it got held for a while for moderation and it may therefore get lost. Tom, just in case you missed it, I'd be curious to know what leads to the identification of a Czajkowski vote as a "Republican" vote.

What delights me the most are the results for Jim Ward.
To do that well without spending a dime shows, at least
in his case, that money doesn't buy elections here.
Congratulations to all the winners, but especially to Jim
for running the type of campaign that he did. I have
always thought that his fern signs were a stroke of
genius and had a great positive impact on all three
of his elections.

Eric & Tom,

I asked the Board of Elections if they could break down the vote totals for each candidate by party affiliation, but they tell me they cannot. It looks like you'd have to infer any pattern based on the proportion of Republican voters in a particular precinct, but, of course, that would be very imprecise.

One quick check on the "one shot" thing - if we assume that everyone who voted for a council member also voted for mayor, but all who voted for mayor didn't use all four of their council votes, it might explain some things. In the BoE's latest data, it looks like 6,114 total mayoral votes. If all had voted for four council candidates, the number is 24,456. The total council votes were 21,129. The 3,327 "missing votes" suggests that there were more than a few one, two or three shots.

Fred, it is also possible there were a few who didn't vote for mayor but did vote for 1, 2, or 3 council members (esp. if there were some who refused to vote for anyone with robo-call campaigning). I have one neighbor, bless her, who told me she was going to vote solely for Jim Ward and no one else for anything, just on the issue of campaign spending.

What is with the Jamezetta Bedford vote tally in Carrboro?

Looks to me like they might be off by 100. I recall the same thing happened to her four years ago. Of course, in this case, if there is a mistake, correcting it will not change results or order of finish.

Yes Priscilla, but that's why I had to made the assumption ("if we assume that everyone who voted for a council member also voted for mayor") because there is no way to test it yet . Next year I am told that we will be able to.

When does the new term start?

I've used it before but I question whether the state should be making voter affiliation available. Seems like an invasion of privacy for anyone to have to declare a public affiliation in order to vote.

Eric,

1)There was a major push by Republican mayoral candidate Kevin Wolff to get out the GOP vote.

2)He got over 40% of the vote in just three precincts

3) Matt Czajkowski finished first in just those same three precincts. Those precincts accounted for 3 of 4 precincts where Matt beat Cam by more than 20 votes.

I'm sure Matt also got plenty of votes for the reason your friend voted for him. But in looking for correlations and trends across the precincts that's what jumps out at me. Although not a Republican I think most would agree that the themes Matt emphasized probably would have made him more palatable to Republican voters than the rest of the candidates.

Cedar Falls, by the way, is the only Chapel Hill precinct where a Republican has defeated a Democratic candidate in a partisan race since I've been down here- Jamie Daniel beat Moses Carey there in 2004.

I could be totally wrong but that's just my take mining the results precinct by precinct. Congratulations to Matt for a strong finish.

Michael, the genesis of the "communist" view by these not-all-that-worldly high school students was because all the houses look the same. But you are correct -- silly things like banning clotheslines and prohibiting parking give some truth to the sentiment.

In defense of Southern Village, I think most of those SUVs you see going to Scroggs come from outside the neighborhood. Just stand outside Weaver Street at drop-off time and watch them stream in from 15-501. Or, stand at the Edgewater park and watch the 100s of people walking past to school. Or, look at the rows and rows of bikes stacked along the pond retaining fence.

Now, why did Southern Village turn out for Czajkowski? Well, I'm not sure, but he did have people at the polling place all day. And, unless I'm mistaken, I saw him at the square handing out info and chatting people up the week before the election. Also, I heard at least one person in the neighborhood talking about his positions and saying there was a whisper-campaign against him that he was a Republican.

Tom, there is certainly something to the correlations you cite.

I thought it would be interesting to look at a map of the precincts- anyone know where I could find one? I saw Damon's map of polling places but I can't put my hands on a map that shows the boundaries of the precincts. Of course it would be great to have one with both the Orange and Durham/CH precincts on them. Is it right in front of my nose?
Linda C.

Mark, my pleasure. I continue to be impressed by the fact that you so freely offer your contact details.

At the end of the day, positions and policies and opposition and whatever else aside, public office is about being available to help people. And you have always shown yourself willing to be there - even when the slings and arrows are at their thickest.

Ok. Um. So. Was that enough for the $20...?! Kidding people...but really...do you think it's worth more...?

Yesterday afternoon, I went to the farm to hit tennis balls
then to Harris-Teeter in Meadowmont. Along the way I
stopped to gather a pickup-truck-load of signs. From this
experience I proudly offer two awards:

I present the quantity award to Sally Greene, hands down.

The muscle award to Bill Strom, also by a wide margin.
I don't know who planted his signs, but I picture the incredible
hulk with a 20-pound sledge.

Finally, I make a suggestion. The signs with metal frames
are a pain. Since we here in the People's Republic of
Chapel Hill tend toward over-regulation, we should legislate
that all election signs be supported by stakes of southern
yellow pine, one inch by five eighths, driven with a
20-ounce, straight-claw hammer with 15 blows by anyone
weighing less than 150 pounds and 12 blows by anyone who
weighs more. Such hammers must be purchased at
Fitch Lumber, thus keeping the sales tax in the county and
supporting a local business. What do you think, comrades?

I spent this morning cleaning up the remaining parts of 54 E (thanks Joe for getting those others before I could get to them).

First props to Mike Kelley. He wrote all of the other candidates and proposed that we cooperate in the sign cleanup. Most of the School Board and Chapel Hill candidates agreed to participate (Bedford, Burroughs, Kelley and Wallach and Foy, Greene, Hill, Raymond,Rich, Strom, and Ward). Mike divided up the areas and most all of us have been out retrieving signs and taking them to Cedar Falls Park.

And folks have done a great job so far. There are a few signs that may have been overlooked and at least one candidate that can't get to his area til Saturday (some of us pulled in his area), but most signs from this diverse group are out of the ground and on their way to another life which may involve tomatoes.

I won't weigh in on stakes vs wire as I've only used stakes. But I will say that stakes have a history that is very full.

Jim Ward marks his stakes as his own. I suspect that he's using the same stakes he had from 8 years ago.

And when Joe H called Sally to say that he would endorse her 4 years ago, he said "I'll make this a very tangible endorsement. Please come by my house and pick up some stakes. I've used these for my candidates for many elections."

If you see stray Greene signs, drop me a note and I attend to them soon afters.

Thanks Ruby. It was right in front of my nose - I had looked at the map but had missed how to get down to the precinct level.
LC

Ouch. I'm assuming Joe C's wooden stake proposal is a joke. The metal H version slides into the ground and stays upright. Wooden stakes take a ton of sledge to hammer three inches tilted. I donated my metal H's from '05 to another worthy cause. They work just as well to hold up tomatoes.

Thanks to Mike Kelly for organizing the sign p/u. Made all our lives a bit easier. I am sure we will all recycle what materials we can.

As a young, educated, interested, moderate voter in Chapel Hill, I can say without hesitation that one of the major reasons that Cam Hill was not re-elected was his own behavior. As others have hinted above, Hill quite frankly comes across as a arrogant, divisive, and exclusionary. One need only read a few years' worth of his comments on this very blog to see that even his written posts have condescending, holier-than-thou undertones. He often blatantly derides people who disagree with him and resorts to trite, dismissive one-liners that do not befit an elected official of any political affiliation. His behavior is an embarrassment to our little suburban paradise, and I am frankly quite glad to be rid of him. Hopefully, his upcoming years on the outside of the Town Council “good ol' boys club” will bring him back to reality and get him more in touch with what life is like for the rest of us. Good riddance.