2007
Last November I made a comment here on OP about someone who observed that recent appointees to the Chapel Hill Planning Board had close ties to those on the Council and their campaigns for reelection. You can follow the thread to see the reactions.
Today, George C reported that a UNC professor was recently added to the Planning Board. I think that's great!
I've had several people contact me and ask for a post about the final 2007 campaign finance figures. (And yet none of them offerred to write it themselves, hmmm.) The results are pretty interesting. The Independent Weekly wrote a summary including Chapel Hill.
He placed fourth in the race, but first in cash: Council challenger Matt Czajkowski spent at least $20,000 in the election cycle—more than fellow candidates Sally Greene, Cam Hill and Bill Strom combined. Ninety percent came from Czajkowski's own pocket, via $17,750 in self-loans.
Czajkowski came in fourth in the seven-person race for four seats, squeaking by incumbent Hill by 63 votes.
In total, Strom raised $9,380 and spent $6,497; Greene raised $7,881
and spent $5,669; and Hill raised $5,485 and spent $5,566 (he had cash
on hand from his 2003 race). Top vote-getter and incumbent Jim Ward, who pledged not to spend more than $3,000, had not submitted a final report as of Jan. 29.
A couple of recent letters to the editor are stretching logic and hyperbole in order to make their points. I think they end up having the opposite effect. In today's Daily Tar Heel for example, senior Chris Garrison complains that "if Benito Mussolini can get public transportation to run on schedule" why can't Chapel Hill? Do we really have to answer that, Chris?
In last week's Independent Weekly, Sharon Cook wrote a letter taking issue with that paper's October 2007 characterization of her as a newcomer to the issue of justice for the African-American neighbors of the landfill. She accused the Indy of shoddy reporting, and explained her history of supporting her Rogers Road neighbors.
And now tonight at 7:30 Carrboro will swear in new and re-elected members of the Board of Aldermen: Joal, Dan, and Lydia. I'm sure Dan Coleman will be breathing a sigh of relief now that he has been put before the people of Carrboro and duly elected.
Expect another round of nice speeches followed by good snacks.
If there have been as many bitter recriminations in Carrboro as there have been in Chapel Hill, I sure haven't noticed. What are people saying? Are we ready to work together yet?
Tonight, the Chapel Hill Town Council will swear in the four folks elected this fall: Jim, Sally, Bill, and Matt. Hopefully, this will lay to rest the Chapel Hill News' obsession with picking on Cam Hill. Presumably, you can look for Matt Czajkowski - who promised to ride his bike to all Council meetings - pedaling up Franklin Street tonight.
The last video went over well, so here's another. I recapped what went on on the site this week, and managed to keep it under 14 minutes...
Play
Sorry for the errors and weird editing. The fan noise is actually my laptop (which is recording the video) so I can't turn it off. I'd like to get it shorter, but that would actually take me longer! Your feedback is welcome. I'm learning...
And FYI, OPTV is archived here.
These are the precinct-level maps for the Chapel Hill election. The complete set is available here. As with the Carrboro election maps, the maps below are based on unofficial results published on November 8 by the Orange County Board of Elections. And thanks again to Brad for the technical wizardry.
As shown below, the Chapel Hill municipal boundary contains part or all of 22 precincts, including 1 precinct in Durham County.
Here is the first round of precinct-level maps for the Carrboro election. The complete set is available here. The maps below are based on unofficial results released by the Orange County Board of Elections on the afternoon of November 7. Much credit goes to my friend Brad for helping to put these together so quickly.
The first figure below shows the 8 precincts that now lie at least partly within Carrboro's municipal boundary.
Well this was a very interesting year. No-one in the survey predicted Jim Ward coming first (by 7 votes!), so we have no absolute victor. In fact as a group, the averages of our predictions were off base in a few places. I guess that goes to show, that we should do more thinking for ourselves, or get out into other neighborhoods more (as I think Fred told us last time).
Where did the hive mind get it right? Collectively, we predicted the correct results for all the mayoral races (cinch), we got the Aldermen right except the top two, and we got the top and bottom right in the school board race. For a bunch of people from Chapel Hill (10 of the 21 participants) we sure did't seem to know Chapel Hill voters very well!
Three people got the order right in Carrboro: Ed Neely, Patrick McDonough, and one person who declined to give their name. And only one person got the order of the School Board race right: Damon Seils!
A lot of us got knocked out of the running by listing incumbents Joal Broun and Jamezetta Bedford as top voter getters, when challengers actually took the top slot in both of their races!
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