Jersey Mike

Just as I suspected, there were around three hundred people in front of City Hall for about forty five minutes today at noon.

I would safely estimate that around one hundred of them were actually there to “rally” and the other two hundred were onlookers.

For the thirty minutes that I was there, I heard one actually audible chant, saw about half a dozen signs and figured there was probably one press or media person for every ten attendees.

Linda came to the window and waved and mouthed the words “I’m staying”.

And she is.

I won’t discredit that what happened today was a good *showing* of the growing frustration with local government, but will maintain that the entire event was poorly organized, misguided and potentially dangerous.

Oh, and did I mention it was a mostly white crowd? In a city whose demographic makeup is 54.83% black/African American?

There was no unified message being delivered to City Hall today. Other than the obvious: that a percentage of the citizenship of Harrisburg is unhappy with it’s leadership.

But I also wonder: where was all of this fire on election day? And I wonder how many who attended stayed home last election?

That’s what this really boils down to. Voter apathy.

Face it, kids. She’s here for another thirty five months. Unless she melts down or is indicted.

James Ellison pulls the levers anyway.

Did you vote today?

Whether you did or didn’t vote, you can still hang out and wax poetic about it.

Repub or Democrat, Indie or Green…everybody loves a FUNK band!

Head to The Abbey Bar at Appalachian Brewing Company tonight for Black Landlord (fitting, right?) from Philadelphia tonight -

It’s an early one- they’ll start around 8:30 and they’ll play around 90 minutes- and then it’s off to the election-party hopping.

Can’t beat that on a Tuesday, right?

(Oh- and it’s a free show)

Well this was interesting, eh?

We’ll do another one of these about a week before the primary- but as it stands right now, the Jersey Mike Mayor and Council Poll Results are (sort of) right where I thought they’d be.

Respondents were gathered from posting the link on my Twitter and Facebook accounts in addition to a link on the Harrisburg Forum of PennLies…er, PennLive.

Starting with council, it’s looking like Papenfuse, Kim, Summerford and Harris in the lead. Bringing up the rear is Mikey Thomas, Pat Stringer, Eugenia Smith, Joe Brown, Danielle Green and Pat Stringer.

In my humble opinion, Pat Stringer should just drop out and scatter her few votes to more capable candidates. Again, she seems like a nice enough lady…but I can picture her making me a warm bowl of soup on a cold winter day…sort of like my Grandmother.

The most surprising name in the top four is certainly Kelly Summerford. Based on what I’ve heard, this guy doesn’t have much street-support outside of his immediate family and friends. What’s he going to bring to the table? Dance lessons? Acting lessons?

(And do keep in mind that there is certainly room for error in this poll. The system isn’t foolproof and it is quite possible that the votes could have been stacked by visiting multiple computers, proxy sites or IP masking.)

Onto the Mayoral poll-

Nothing shocking, here. What’s going to happen is this: Les and Linda are going to potentially cancel each other out. Giving Reed the leeway needed to muster up enough support to get a ninth term as Mayor.

On the surface, this poll shows Les Ford leading with 37% of respondents selections. Close behind is Steve Reed with 33%, Thompson with 21% and Republican Candidate Nevin Mindlin with 9%.

Realizing that this is just a simple and unscientific study, much of the Thompson street-support didn’t participate. Either because of not knowing or just not wanting to. Either way, I was certain there would have been more support for Linda than Les. But hey, it’s just a poll from a blogger, right?

This is where the process gets fun. Watch the mailers. Look at all of the campaign signs and propoganda hitting the streets. And listen to what these people have to say at the upcoming candidates debates.

This is getting good….