There is not one, but two elections today that will impact our state. We are all watching the Massachusetts Senate Race, but don’t forget about the B’ham mayors race.

My early prediction on the that mayors race is that Patrick Cooper is in real trouble. Frontrunners should avoid getting in a runoff at all cost because your closest opponent becomes a legitimate contender and will be able to raise money.

Cooper might pull off a win but his likelihood of becoming the next Mayor of B’ham would be much better if he had done these things differently:

a) Cooper could have won without a runoff if he did a better job at persuading voters outside of his comfort zone to grow the base of support he had already solidified during his previous run against former Mayor Larry Langford.

b)  Cooper should not have let  William Bell out fundraise him in the runoff!  Bell, who only raised $15,000 during the general election has raised $300,000 for the runoff which is around $25,000 more than Cooper. The reason this is trouble for Cooper is because he has had plenty of money and able to buy a lot of TV time ahead of the last two mayoral elections and has only able to persuade 1/3 of voters in either race. Bell on the other hand, managed to persuade 1/6 of runoff voters while only spending 15K. With 300K Bell has been able to buy serious TV time and make his appeal to a wide audience of voters for the first time in this election cycle.

You can expect to see exponential growth in Bell’s share of the votes cast today. Will it be enough to win? I cannot read the gallery's xml file: /home/patricw3/public_html/moweryconsulting/wp-content/photos//gallery.xml
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