Little Kevin Johnson, former NBA point guard for the Phoenix Suns, will be in a mayorial runoff in November for the position as Sacramento's next mayor. His main competition is the incumbant, Heather Fargo, who has had two terms as mayor - all during the new basketball arena era fiasco and downtown (non)-redevelopment period. Only absentee vote counts can nudge either candidate over the needed 50 percent total so a November run off would be unnecessary, and those counts won't be available for several weeks.. But a somewhat confident Johnson is already acting as if he has won.
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/990309.htmlA confident Kevin Johnson said Wednesday he's getting ready to take over as Sacramento's mayor, even though he likely faces a November runoff against Mayor Heather Fargo.
"We need to start preparing to take the reins of Sacramento," Johnson told media and supporters assembled for a news conference at his midtown campaign headquarters.
He said he would start meeting with city department heads to gather information, and would travel to cities around the country to get ideas on increasing economic development and reducing crime.
"For us going forward, it's about making history now," declared Johnson, who would be the first African American elected to the city's top office.
Mayor Heather Fargo called her challenger's plans premature. "It's presumptuous for him to think of being the next mayor; we're a long way away from that," she said.
While Johnson led Fargo 47 percent to 40 percent when Tuesday's votes had been counted, at least 15,000 vote-by-mail ballots turned in during the last days of the race remain uncounted. The total could be thousands more, said county elections spokesman Brad Buyse.
The uncounted absentees could easily equal a third of the 46,224 votes counted for the seven mayoral candidates so far.
Even with the large number of uncounted votes, elections experts said it would be mathematically difficult for Johnson to gain enough votes to top 50 percent, which he would have to do to avoid a runoff. To get a majority of votes, Johnson's margin of victory among the uncounted ballots would have to be about 64 percent.
"It's a runoff," said Contra Costa Clerk-Recorder Stephen Weir, president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.
Johnson does, however, have history on his side when he predicts he'll prevail on Nov. 4. It has been a quarter-century since a mayoral candidate in Sacramento who came in second in the primary went on to win in the fall. That was 1983, when Anne Rudin beat Ross Relles, said City Clerk Shirley Concolino.
Of course, November's general election is likely to be much different from Tuesday's vote, when turnout was low, and many people put off their decision until the last minute.
The November ballot will be packed with high-interest items, such as the presidential contest between presumptive nominees Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, and a statewide proposition that would ban gay marriage after the state Supreme Court just declared it legal.
"We anticipate that in the November election we're going to see a huge increase in our voter registration rolls and a huge increase in turnout," Buyse said.
Both Johnson and Fargo claimed the higher turnout in November would give them an advantage.
Johnson, an early supporter of Obama, said the two campaigns plan joint events. He said the election will likely draw more African American voters, Latino voters and young voters ? all groups that he said would favor him.
"Everyone felt that a low turnout was the best chance for (Fargo) to win," he said.
But Fargo said Democrats would come out in droves, and as she was the candidate endorsed by the local Democratic Party, their presence would favor her.
"There are going to be a lot more people voting, and it's going to be a lot more partisan in nature. Given that I'm the choice for the Democratic Party in the county, and he's got so much Republican support, that will play into it."
Tuesday's voting featured thousands of people who dropped off their vote-by-mail ballots at polling places, or put them in the mail just in time to beat the deadline, Buyse said. The last-minute barrage of vote-by-mail ballots has left the county elections office scrambling to get them counted.
Absentee voting has been on the rise for years, and state law now allows people to be designated as permanent absentees. But changes adopted for the convenience of voters have created a situation where the exact outcome of close races is often not known the morning after.
"It's a very long, methodical process to get vote-by-mails into the count," Weir said. "They come in folded. Sometimes they've got coffee on them. Sometimes, they've gotten wet or torn."
Fargo expressed frustration at the possibility of having to wait nearly a month for final totals.
"I don't understand why there would be this many uncounted at this point," she said. "Is this all the new technology that was supposed to be so great? I think somebody needs to explain it, because if this is a preview of what's gong to happen in November when we've got a really big turnout, they've got some planning to do."
Buyse said the Sacramento County elections staff began counting the remaining absentee ballots Wednesday, and would have an update Friday. Within seven to 10 days, Buyse said, he hopes to know whether there will be a mayoral runoff.
He said staff members will work eight hours a day on the count, but won't be rushed. They have to check each voter signature against the signature on file. The ballots are then run through a machine.
"Every county has 28 days to complete their canvass," Buyse said.
Buyse said 66,000 ballots countywide had not been counted as of Wednesday. These included ballots received by the elections office after Saturday afternoon, those dropped off on election day, and provisional ballots
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As Sacramento steps into plans for its future development, I can't help but look back fondly on the last twenty-five years of the city's construction activity and arena issues - except there really AREN'T any fond memories. In the late 80's, the Southern Pacific railyards that borders both rivers in Sacramento was ceded to the city (270 acres worth), essentially doubling the downtown area, and in the most prime location you can imagine. Today, that marvelous gift sits out there, in view of my office window, literally gathering dust in the prairie. Seems that no one in the power game working in city hall can make a decision on what to do with it. Same with the arena. So far, we have had to rely on outside people (former Calif governor Pete Wilson and our NBA commish, David Stern) to actually negotiate an arena deal because every time someone from the city tries to move on the idea, it is like someone threw a bag on marbles on the floor of city hall.
Johnson, on the other hand, potentially comes into the Sacramento political scene with accusations of "dating" underage girls and misuse of funds in his own organization that works in the development of the Sacramento innercity neighborhoods his organization has been intrusted to do.
