Donna Frye update

The count is still going on to determine our new Mayor, but the number of write-ins verified as for Donna Frye is 146,291, so it's really getting down to the wire. Dick Murphy has 147,585, and the total number of write-ins is 149,979. What they're not telling us is how many write-ins there are left to count, so we know she's pretty close, but we don't know how close.

The real issue these days, though, is that there are two law suits that have been filed to try to invalidate Donna's candidacy. I don't know the details of the law suits. One has something to do with one of our laws saying that write-ins are allowed, but another saying that they're not allowed. They're saying that the law that says that they're not allowed supersede's the law that says that they're allowed.

The second lawsuit says something to the effect that Donna, as the sole democrat against two republicans, split the republican vote, and that her election, therefore, doesn't represent the true wishes of the people.

I can't speak to the justification of the first law suit, but I don't think the second one is valid. Yes, there is a problem when you have two people who represents roughly the same set of ideas running against someone with a different set. A lot of people say that this is why Gore lost in 2000. Although there wasn't another democrat to split the vote, there was another popular liberal, Ralph Nader, who supposedly took votes away from Al Gore. Had Nader not been in the race, there is a good chance Gore would have one.

I'm not saying that this isn't a problem, but, just as in 2000, any reform to the voting process should apply to the next election, not the one we just had.

As for the first law suit. I'm not sure how people are selected for the ballot, but I don't like the idea that the government can tell us who we can vote for. Even in this election, Donna had to get an okay to be considered as a write in. It seems to me that we should be able to elect anyone we damn please.

The only good argument I've heard for invalidating Donna's candidacy is that she joined the race only 5 weeks before the election, and that didn't really give people a chance to find out who she was. However, she's been a city councilwomen for four years now, so we do know something about her, and I don't think she could have won (assuming she did) without that reputation, so I don't really think that's a valid argument either.

Basically, I think there are people who want to own the government, and they know they can't own Donna Frye. If they had thought she had a chance, they probably would have tried to dig up some dirt on her, but that can backfire on you and, since they didn't think she would win anyway, they didn't want to chance it. Now that she did win (assuming that she did), they want to go against the will of the people and get someone in the office that they have a better chance of buying off.

Having said that, I don't want to suggest the Dick Murphy can be bought off. I think he has a lot of personal integrity, which is why he's not too disappointed that Donna seems to be winning. However, I do think that Dick Murphy is more susceptible to flattery and coercion than Donna is, and I think he knows it, and that's why I think he's personally looking forward to see what happens under Donna.