Gainesville City Commission Election Results and Runoff

The Gainesville City Commission election that took place the day before yesterday elected two conservatives in the races pertaining to specific districts and put another into a close runoff for the city-wide at-large seat.  The voter turnout was low in the city overall, at about 15%, but in those districts whose seats were up for election it was up to around 40%.   Seeing how Gainesville as a whole tends to vote Democratic and liberal when the voter turnout is higher, as it is during elections properly held in November, I have drawn two conclusions from what has happened.  One is that the conservative minority in this town is much more passionate about expressing their political convictions than the voter at-large.  That's to their credit and makes me wonder a bit about those registered voters who only go to the polls when they are in the mood instead of regarding the vote as an important right, as well as a civic duty meriting priority in their lives.  So hats off to winners Todd Chase (whom I supported) in District 2 and Craig Carter in District 3.  They ran good, aggressive campaigns and were rewarded in the election.  My second conclusion from this voter turnout disparity between conservatives and liberals is that the high turnout in Districts 2 and 3 may not transfer in degree to the runoff election for the at-large seat in a few weeks.  Conservative Democrat Annie Orlando, who finished Tuesday's election in a near-tie with more liberal Democrat Helen Warren, benefited in that first voting from the more dedicated, higher-turnout conservative voters in those two district races.  I still expect her to benefit from a higher conservative turnout in the runoff election, but since those other two races have already been decided, I don't think it will be as high.  And that might be enough to hand Warren the election.  Should be interesting to see how this all turns out...