That’s based on the numbers I saw coming in to Morrison HQ tonight. Although there were enough precincts out to change things around. I’m thinking Benjamin will lead, but with the hugely black Greenview precinct out, and a broken machine at a 4th District precinct friendly to Finlay, anything can happen. For that matter, Morrison could still be in a runoff.
But I don’t think so.
I just happened to be at the Morrison nerve center by accident. I had dropped by Benjamin HQ, but didn’t see anyone I knew. I waited around for Joey Opperman, but he didn’t show, so I left, sort of halfway thinking about dropping by Damon’s, which seemed to be where Benjamin supporters were heading.
I then dropped by Dianne’s on Devine, because I’d gotten an invitation from Kevin Fisher to watch returns there (drinks on us, snacks on him). But even though it was at least 10 after 7, no one had showed yet.
I was about to head home, when it occurred to me that Morrison HQ was only a block away, so I went to stick my head in. What a hive of activity! No one had time to so much as say “Hi, Brad!” much less “Get lost!,” which I would have understood. Everybody was taking results as fast as they could, from volunteers stationed at each polling place. WAY faster than news organizations (when I started typing this AFTER I got home, thestate.com and WIS still had only absentees posted).
When I left at 7:42, all but six wards were in, but they included Greenview — expected to go hugely for Benjamin — and the aforementioned likely Finlay broken box (I forget where that was). And it was Benjamin 4,531, Finlay 4,816, and Morrison 4,478. That’s 31.95%, 33.96% and 31.58%, respectively.
Neck and neck, and yeah, maybe those six polling places could go strongly for Morrison — but it didn’t look likely.
There were several friends of mine there working themselves to death — Candy Waites and Bud Ferillo among them, with Phil Grose sort of hovering the way I was –and I decided to get out of their way.
So I don’t really know how it came out.
But I’ll tell you one thing — as far as organization goes, they really had it going on…
A couple of minutes after I got done with that — an hour after I left Morrison HQ — Gina Smith, stationed at the Election Commission, Tweeted: “Benjamin and Finlay in runoff.”
Oh, this is disappointing. WIS is now reporting all but two precincts — with the same result I had earlier — while thestate.com only has three precincts up on its spreadsheet. Even though Gina obviously has the numbers. Not a smooth data flow.
Maybe thestate.com has the numbers up elsewhere on the site, and I’m not looking in the right place…
… which is perfectly fine for newspaper work… plenty of time to get it right in the paper, and for that purpose slow is better than hasty. But don’t put up a chart like that on the Web site if you’re going to make folks wait…
I’m going to take a break, and check back when the 4th District is looking more certain…
… but so far, it’s looking like Leona and Tony in a runoff…
So maybe half my advertisers made it…
An interesting sidelight:
I have TWO advertisers still in it. Which is pretty good. The most I could have had would have been three.
And in the 4th District, it could be argued that an ad on bradwarthen.com made the difference. My two earliest advertisers made the runoff, while the third among the most likely candidates, who did NOT take out an ad, is out.
But perhaps I’m thinking like an ad salesman and not a political writer there, eh?
Hey, that’s six comments in a row by me. Where ARE y’all? Am I the only one watching these returns?
I live in Lexington, I don’t care who wins in Columbia.
People who appreciate the value of an ad on bradwarthen.com are the sort of people who win elections.
I was watching closely, but gave up after 8 when it took too long to get results.
Friends commented today about seeing Kevin Fisher all by his lonesome waving his flag in the St. Pat’s parade, ‘though all the other participating candidates at least had a small posse, if not a flat bed float…I guess he was indeed, as I quipped, an Army of One.
See, you should have been following my Tweets. I called it, accurately, at about 7:45.
That’ll teach you to follow those other, Brand X media…
Well, actually I was waiting on the blog….hitting the refresh keys….sighing….checking out Adam Beam’s blog and Facebook page….refreshing the blog page….