Congrats to Mary Cheh

[jsteele]

Cheh out-performed Gray by quite a margin tonight in her ward, capturing 64% of the vote to Gray's 51%. Given that many of her constituents wanted to punish her for endorsing Gray and the Post endorsed her opponent, this is a pretty good showing. Many voters must have cast both a write-in and a vote for Cheh, which seems a bit contradictory. They may have been willing to use their mayoral vote as a protest measure based on the expectation that the other wards would provide enough votes for Gray, but weren't willing to take chances with Hedgepeth. Protest is one thing, but they still want city services and Cheh is obviously the best bet there.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:Cheh out-performed Gray by quite a margin tonight in her ward, capturing 64% of the vote to Gray's 51%. Given that many of her constituents wanted to punish her for endorsing Gray and the Post endorsed her opponent, this is a pretty good showing. Many voters must have cast both a write-in and a vote for Cheh, which seems a bit contradictory. They may have been willing to use their mayoral vote as a protest measure based on the expectation that the other wards would provide enough votes for Gray, but weren't willing to take chances with Hedgepeth. Protest is one thing, but they still want city services and Cheh is obviously the best bet there.

Why do you assume the write-in votes were just a protest measure and that they were counting on votes for Gray in other wards? Fenty beat Gray 4-to-1 in W3. I think they would have been perfectly happy if the write-in effort had succeeded, even if they realized that this was a longshot.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
Why do you assume the write-in votes were just a protest measure and that they were counting on votes for Gray in other wards? Fenty beat Gray 4-to-1 in W3. I think they would have been perfectly happy if the write-in effort had succeeded, even if they realized that this was a longshot.

Because it was perfectly clear to anyone paying attention that the write-in effort had no chance of success. There may have been a few delusional voters hoping for a miracle, but by and large those writing-in Fenty knew their votes would do little more than send a message.

In the primary, Fenty received nearly 14,000 votes in Ward 3. There were less than 7,500 write-ins yesterday. Votes for Gray in Ward 3 nearly doubled from the primary to the general. Given the animosity toward Gray in much of Ward 3 and the fact that there was no Republican candidate, it seems that most pro-Fenty voters were not even willing to engage in a protest. Many apparently stayed home.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Why do you assume the write-in votes were just a protest measure and that they were counting on votes for Gray in other wards? Fenty beat Gray 4-to-1 in W3. I think they would have been perfectly happy if the write-in effort had succeeded, even if they realized that this was a longshot.

Because it was perfectly clear to anyone paying attention that the write-in effort had no chance of success. There may have been a few delusional voters hoping for a miracle, but by and large those writing-in Fenty knew their votes would do little more than send a message.

In the primary, Fenty received nearly 14,000 votes in Ward 3. There were less than 7,500 write-ins yesterday. Votes for Gray in Ward 3 nearly doubled from the primary to the general. Given the animosity toward Gray in much of Ward 3 and the fact that there was no Republican candidate, it seems that most pro-Fenty voters were not even willing to engage in a protest. Many apparently stayed home.

You're right, the write-in didn't have a chance of succeeding. In fact, I think the 22% showing is quite impressive given that Fenty formally backed Gray and the effort had no formal funraising or staff. But you said that the Ward 3 people who were writing in were counting on Gray voters in other wards, suggesting that they actually wanted Gray to win. It seems that they wanted Fenty to win, even though they realized that this was a very long shot. I don't see any support for the statement that they were "counting on Gray voters in other wards.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
You're right, the write-in didn't have a chance of succeeding. In fact, I think the 22% showing is quite impressive given that Fenty formally backed Gray and the effort had no formal funraising or staff. But you said that the Ward 3 people who were writing in were counting on Gray voters in other wards, suggesting that they actually wanted Gray to win. It seems that they wanted Fenty to win, even though they realized that this was a very long shot. I don't see any support for the statement that they were "counting on Gray voters in other wards.

Fine. I should have said "expected Gray voters in other wards to provide enough votes for a Gray victory" ("expected" instead of "counting on"). The point is, that a significant number appears to have been willing to protest with their mayoral vote, but not with their council vote. Hence, Cheh out-performed Gray in the ward.

[Anonymous]

While the Republicans or independents here who like Fenty may have assumed that all the Dems who voted for him in the primary would stick with him, I know solid backers who have moved on with their party and went with Gray. I suspect those are the more numerous.

[Anonymous]

I'd guess that while some fenty primary voters wrote him in during the general election (as did republicans), a good portion of other primary Fenty voters switched to Gray for the general election.