Posted on 06/10/2006 12:07:17 PM PDT by SmithL
For those watching the Oakland mayor's race, there was a bit of news Friday as Ron Dellums slipped below the threshold needed to avoid a runoff, but many more said they simply aren't watching the horse race.
World Cup fever. Soaring gas prices. The war in Iraq. Violence in Oakland. Those loom larger on many residents' radar than the mayor's race, in which former Congressman Dellums maintained a significant lead over City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente.
Dionecio Espinoza voted for De La Fuente, but he's not fretting over the fact there still was no winner three days after election day.
"El chisme del mundo? (the gossip of the world?)" the 74-year-old retired bakery worker said Friday about whether the cliffhanger mayor's race is a topic of discussion in his circle. "Nah, we're more interested in the World Cup. They'll figure out the election."
With that, Espinoza, perched on a stool at High Street Billiards in Oakland's Fruitvale district, turned back to the television blaring the soccer game between Germany and Costa Rica.
The county registrar moved a little closer to figuring it out Friday, as election officials counted another 9,600 ballots cast in the mayor's race. The latest results showed Dellums has collected 49.61 percent of the votes tallied so far, placing him well ahead of De La Fuente at 33.39 percent.
But Dellums was 237 votes short of the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff with De La Fuente. Still, the numbers are changing daily -- Friday night there were about 10,500 Oakland ballots left to be counted -- so it's too early to say how, or when, the election will play out.
While observers from the two leading candidates' campaigns were hoping a decision would come sooner rather than later,
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
This is Oakland. There's still 'voting' going on. The question is who will run out of ballots first, Fuentes or Dellums.
Wouldn't be surprising to see well over 100% turnout...
ROFL!
I'm sure they'll do anything to elect "Red" Dellums as mayor. Now Oakland will really go down the toilet!
If Dellums is leaving the House to run for this race, I hope he wins. Sorry, Oakland. Your loss is our gain.
Oops, sorry. It says *former* Congressman Dellums. Now, I'll root for the illegal.
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