End of the line
After the polls closed, I stopped off at one polling place (precinct 100) to get a sense of what happened, then drove on to Jim Mautino's watch party at the American Legion hall. There were a lot of good neighborhood activists there, not only from east Tulsa, but from all over town, people who worked for Jim's re-election. The eats were great -- Big Daddy's Barbecue. The result was close but ultimately disappointing. I'm sure Jim and his wife Bonnie are happy to have their lives back. Jim has worked very hard for all of us, and we should be grateful for what he's given to the city.
Steve Roemerman and I left Jim's party and caravaned down to the Mayo Hotel to the LaFortune watch party. The Mayor made a very graceful concession speech.
I'll be on KFAQ in the morning 6:10 trying to make sense of tonight's results. Meanwhile, go visit meeciteewurkor's Tulsa headlines page for links to what other Tulsa bloggers are saying about the results.
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Good grief....you would have thought someone died on KFAQ. I have never listened to a more subdued Micheal DiGiorno show. It's not all that bad folks. I know the ship has sunk, but you still have a chance to swim to shore.
For the massive amount of money Kathy Taylor Lobeck bought her way into becoming our next Mayor of Tulsa, let's hope the 4 points she squeezed by in her win will help Tulsa.
With Bill Lobecks look on his face, it was as if he was counting the 4 points in $$$$DOLLARS.
As we expected, former District 4 City Councilor has already gotten a paid position on Taylor's staff. Baker was a lousy Tulsa City Councilor for District 4.
The headlines in the Tulsa World newspaper should have been TAYLOR VICTORIOUS IN BUYING HER WAY TO BE TULSA'S NEXT MAYOR.
The massive spending in this race on Taylor's part to only win by 4 points -- just think how bad she would have LOST if she was not married to a very wealthy man and Taylor also had the extreme help of massive GOOD PUBLICITY and the full support of the BIAS TULSA WORLD NEWSPAPER -- the democratic paper for democrat Kathy Taylor. I guess now will we call her Mayor Taylor or Mayor Lobeck?
Do you really think she would have just bounced right into the job as Brad Henry's secretary of commerce and tourism with her financial influence from her husband and her husband's company and that she just months before getting the job lived in Florida?
We can expect blind reporting from the Tulsa World during her time in office.
first, it thought lafortune's concession speech was the way i wanted to remember him. not as a loser but as a gentleman. maybe we've all been a little harder on him that we should have been.
second, what he will be remembered for is, sadly, more about disorganization and lack of focus than a city leader. taylor's campaign hit the leadership theme hard and its because there in fact was a vacancy of aggressive leadership. that's what you get when someone is trying to plaese others instead of his own sence of direction.
the great irony is that incumbency could have been a bigger advantage for lafortune. you have to deal to get elected the first time. but at the city level, if you work with the coucil and enact meaningful improvements within the city, your political capital soars and your campaign for a second term doesn't require making the kingmakers happy, but rather the individual voters.
lafortune's greatest mistake is that he didn't utilize the greatest asset he could have had, city councilors, the very people he actively ignored during his four years in office.
Did anyone ever ask Taylor had the Vision tax plan been presented in the very same manner if she were Mayor, would she have supported it the same to spend that much money for the new arena for that particular location.
She did say she would seek Bill LaFortune's advice as Mayor.