Why did the other guys lose? Did the best candidate win?

[Tacachale]

^If Mullaney had bowed out and endorsed Moran, Audrey would have beaten Brown easily in the primary. Don't know if the opposite would necessarily be true. What's clear is that they lost it for each other and it's unlikely either will ever be mayor.

So there was absolutely no way for Moran or Mullaney to have won even if they both had knowledge from the future?  It was their destiny to lose? 

That's not at all what I said. Moran and Mullaney had it difficult to start with because they drew from the same set of voters. Eventually when they just started duking it out with each other rather than the other guys (particularly when Rick went negative) it only hurt each other without benefiting themselves. In the end this silliness cost both of them the race - and cost the city the two best candidates in the running.

[cityimrov]

I forgot, what was the turnout rate for the primaries?  Was it around 70%? 

[Tacachale]

lol, maybe half that.

[mtraininjax]

Hey, Audrey won the straw poll taken at the Hyatt. That was probably the high point of her campaign.

[fieldafm]

I forgot, what was the turnout rate for the primaries?  Was it around 70%?

I believe it was just under 30%. 

[DuvalHusky]

Most people do not realize Alvin was actually entertaining job offers to get out of the race prior to the primary. I refer to him as the accidental mayor with good reason.

[Shine]

Why did Alvin Brown and Mike Hogan win the primaries? 

As Stephen  alluded to, more than one populist split the vote.  View of the majority then is taken off the table.  At this point, I have to wonder if unitary elections are right for Jacksonville’s political process.  The result is not a “primary” but a “first election” where a large number of fractional candidates are distilled down to a two person general.  Now that Jacksonville is politically on parity from a party perspective â€" partisan primary’s may be more viable.  Now that Democrats will show at the polls, a candidate like Moran could actually run on the blue ticket and may advance.   A Republican only primary would keep moderate republicans in the vote and may produce a more moderate candidate.  But this is the central problem with a mayoral race, you  are voting for a “city manager” more than a political point of view â€" voters don’t get that.  So, the result is the right politics without regard to management ability.  You could have a city-manager form of government, and this issue is put to bed forever.

[cityimrov]

Based on what everyone here said, what basically happened what that the small minority of people in the "in crowd" were fighting each other to earn elite karma points that they forgot to show their care to everyone else, the people that wanted things to stay the same had their candidate, and the small minority of people who were ignored by all the above chose someone who at least visited them, all this, while the vast MAJORITY didn't seem to care either which is another way of saying - none of the candidates actually cared enough about their vote.

The number one lesson learned from this mayoral election is this, Jacksonville is a city with 864,263 citizens.  You can't run a city without at least knowing what each and everyone of those 864,263 citizens do and what their motivation for life is. 

[cityimrov]

Recent events keep reminding me of this thread.  What do you guys think happened?

[mtraininjax]

What do you guys think happened?

I'll tell you what happened, Hogan went to sleep the last 2 months of the campaign, thinking he had the conservative vote wrapped up, and after 8 years of conservative do-nothing in Peyton, they had enough, so Brown comes along, he is energetic, he is saying the right things (as all politicians do, to get elected) and he is seen out and about everywhere (he does like the spotlight and TV more than Peyton did), and he became the popular vote, forget the fact that he had zero experience in Jacksonville politics.

Clay Yarborough won election in Arlington at a young age and has been a rock on the council for a while now. He got out and worked the area and got elected, with help from some very savvy political consultants, it can happen really to anyone, so what we saw this week, may bring change in the future. I'd vote for Jimmy for an At-Large seat, I think diversity is important and needed on any council.

[Shine]

In some ways people are wanting to over think this, myself included.  Reality is the Democratic Party finally turned out a proportionate share of their voters.  Being there are more of them than Republicans in Duval County, Brown won.  Turn back to Obama/McCain â€" they were un able to deliver Duval to Obama.  If they can hold on to what they did with Brown â€" I bet Duval will go for Obama â€" then FL goes Blue, Dems get another four on Penn. Ave.  According to Matt Corrigan PHd.  â€" Bush/Gore went to Bush largely based on what happen here in Duval.