{"id":1646,"date":"2011-12-04T10:05:06","date_gmt":"2011-12-04T15:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/?p=1646"},"modified":"2011-12-04T10:14:32","modified_gmt":"2011-12-04T15:14:32","slug":"savannah-runoff-two-days-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/12\/04\/savannah-runoff-two-days-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Savannah runoff elections just two days away"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Medium Rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8584504377\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>We&#8217;ve entered the homestretch in the Savannah mayoral runoff between Jeff Felser and Edna Jackson, which will be decided on Tuesday, Dec. 6.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve written a lot about the 2011 city elections. See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/savannah-2011-election\/\" target=\"_blank\">my page<\/a> of links to posts, and in particular these: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/11\/27\/some-thoughts-on-the-savannah-morning-news-endorsement-of-edna-jackson-for-savannah-mayor\/\" target=\"_blank\">Some thoughts on the Savannah Morning News endorsement of Edna Jackson <\/a>and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/11\/14\/first-forum-in-savannah-mayoral-runoff-focuses-on-sustainability-and-transportation\/\" target=\"_blank\">First forum in Savannah mayoral runoff focuses on sustainability and transportation<\/a>. In my Savannah Morning News column today, which you can find at the top of the list of links in the sidebar to the right, I talk at length about questions infrastructure and the extreme uncertainty still surrounding projects like an arena and a new police headquarters, despite the fact that voters first approved those in 2006. <\/p>\n<p>I also reference the <a href=\"http:\/\/savannahnow.com\/latest-news\/2011-11-30\/video-roundtable-discussion-savannah-mayoral-candidates-felser-and-jackson\" target=\"_blank\">video of a roundtable<\/a> at the SMN with Felser and Jackson. You can learn more about the candidates&#8217; pasts in <a href=\"http:\/\/savannahnow.com\/news\/2011-12-04\/felser-jackson-head-runoff\" target=\"_blank\">a Lesley Conn article today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As I keep noting, Jackson is the clear favorite going into the runoff, but turnout could play a critical role. With only about 20,000 voters determining the outcome, every vote really does matter in this election. Jeff seems to have energized a significant number of younger white voters; if they show up on Tuesday, this could be a much closer race than many predicted.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there&#8217;s also another runoff &#8212; Tom Bordeaux and Clinton Young face each other in a citywide election for one of the at-large aldermanic seats. The other seat was won pretty easily by Carol Bell in the general election last month.<\/p>\n<p>In the mayoral race, most of the establishment forces have lined up behind Edna Jackson, who is viewed in prominent circles as someone who can be worked with. Or, as a cynic might say, maybe she is just seen as the eventual winner &#8212; and therefore someone to be supported for anyone who hopes to work closely with the city.<\/p>\n<p>A paradox of the race: while a small percentage of the electorate is very engaged, most are not &#8212; at all. Another paradox: despite the energy and money and contentiousness, the day to day operations of the city will be handled by the city manager&#8217;s office.<\/p>\n<p>I wish that the candidates had put a little more distance between themselves on policy issues &#8212; and I&#8217;ll bet that&#8217;s what many of Jeff&#8217;s supporters will be wishing if the election goes as predicted. Felser&#8217;s campaign really hasn&#8217;t staked out the type of specific, signature initiatives that might excite voters enough to drive a greater turnout. At the same time, Edna seems to have done a decent job distancing herself &#8212; at least in the minds of some voters &#8212; from some of the actions by mayor and council over the last year and a half that created an unnecessarily tense political season. <\/p>\n<p>All that said, there is a real choice here, and ample information is available about the two candidates. Check out their websites: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ednabjackson.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Edna Jackson<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/jefffelserformayor.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Jeff Felser<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"4\" style=\"float: none; margin:4px 0 4px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Another large rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"0042810896\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 336;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 280;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;ve entered the homestretch in the Savannah mayoral runoff between Jeff Felser and Edna Jackson, which will be decided on Tuesday, Dec. 6. I&#8217;ve written a lot about the 2011 city elections. See my page of links to posts, and&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/12\/04\/savannah-runoff-two-days-away\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[8],"tags":[61],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1gN9R-qy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}