Knoxville mayoral candidate Mark Padgett got thumped tonight.
Wasn't much of a surprise.
Heck, I'm writing this two hours before the early voting results have come in.
How could I not?
He ran one of the most damaged campaign I've seen in a long time. Perhaps ever. Lies, distortions, hate. (And not to mention the personal confrontations he had in private with other elected officials and members of the media.)
This crap doesn’t work. Not in a city election.
Anyhoo, I knew I write something about tonight. I knew it weeks ago. And I had all these witty things I wanted to say. But, really, it’s just not worth it.
What can you say, if you've been following this mess?
I'll let the rest pontificate. (That means you hippie, and you rogue, and maybe the mean ones can weigh in, too.)
As for me? I've got two points (unless I digress) that I feel need mentioning.
The first: The “I'm a small businessman” angle. Huh?
WTH? Does he own a business? Yeah. Is it small? No.
It's minuscule. It was stupid to run as a businessman.
He had nothing. He invented something.
He should have run as a martyr. He should have run humble. He should have told the truth.
“I've got five employees – I created five jobs. But, hey, that's important. That helps five families. And one day, I'll grow this company. But, if I had help – if I had the support of my city, if the elected officials had sought grants, created grants, whatever – then maybe my company would be bigger. As mayor that's what I'll do. I'll take these miniscule businesses grow. Five jobs will become 10. Maybe 20. I know what needs to be done. I know what it’s really like to struggle.”
THAT'S what he should have said. Or something like that. Or whatever. But, maybe you get the idea.
Instead, he hid behind the door. He dodged the questions. And he made up numbers. It wasn't until Metro Pulse writer Cari “Mean” Gervin put a gun to his head and said she'd pull the trigger if he didn't answer the question that he finally came clean.
FIVE. Five employees.
And some people don’t even believe that.
The second: The negative campaign. I mean, come on. How cliche is that crap now? What is this, the county? I mean seriously. The mailers, the emails, the whatever.
Sell your soul.
The push to the runoff – the second part of the this election – should have been a run at the next office, the next time. Not now. Cause he wasn't winning this one. (Even going negative.) Jeez. Look at the freakin' primary numbers.
What? Opponent Madeline Rogero is gonna not get that one extra percentage point between then and tonight? Give me a break.
Padgett should have been a pro. He should have cruised. He should have gone positive. Instead, we got bush league.
And that's going to hurt him for a long time.
He's upset too many people.
He had a chance to get the Rogero voters in a race when there is no Rogero.
No chance now. They want nothing to do with him.
(I’m betting Madeline will be gracious in public. Doesn’t mean it’s real.)
He needed those Democrats. That is, if he ever was a Democrat. Or wants to stay one.
Forget it now.
That bridge isn't flame retardant.
He lost his viability among Republicans, too.
They're not sticking around. Not after that thumping.
The money won't come next time. And there'll be a next time. Believe it. That kind of arrogance, confidence, whatever. He'll run again. He has to. (We all know why.)
In the meantime, Padgett should offer up an olive branch.
Turn in the turd who “masterminded” that piece of crap hate mail.
If he doesn't know who it is, he should find out.
Because it didn't exactly do him any good.
Nor did missing the two points I just made.
12 comments:
Now you've gone and upset BHornback. :)
Rebuilding could take awhile? How about forever?
At least if he wants to a) run in a city election or b) run as a Democrat.
Maybe, just maybe, he can change parties and run for a county office. But it wouldn't take a great candidate to beat him in a R primary.
I'm not even sure he'll stay in Knox County.
Perhaps he'll do what he told me last spring - which was one thing I heard him say that I believed - "if I lose this election, I'm going back to the private sector. I don't have a passion for politics. I just saw this as an opportunity."
Naw, Brian will be fine. I bet he had as much fun as I did covering this election. And we've got the property assessor race that will kick in probably by early January.
I'm willing to bet (cliche alert)that the sparks will fly in that race. Ballard and Whitehead. Wow.
As for Mark, he'll be back. Probably in a few years. He's got charisma, he's young. Whether he'll win is a different story. If he switches parties he'll have a lot to explain. But running a D in the county, of course, is tough.
Then again, maybe he could run for property assessor.
Yep, your right Donila. I am ok with you mentioning me. Poor ole Rachel Craig and some of those extremist liberals that just love me. They consume lots of bandwidth posting about me.
I also want the coward that authored that hate mail to be exposed. I was asked by a tv reporter on election day who I thought it was. I wish my suspicions could be confirmed. It was a disgraceful piece of crap.
This one was over at 8:15 pm last night, I congratulated the winners and we move on.
I can think of an office Padgett could run for and have his sins forgotten. The election would be a real wrestling match, but he might could win.
Look, anytime you spend like 20 grand on a poll that is way off (the primary poll that said he was like 6 points of Rogero I am not sure of the exact #s)your making a bad mistake. Stacey Campfield once told me he refuses to do polls because the only poll that counts is on election day. Sadly, Padgett's race has destroyed or at least set back a lot of people politically. I think of someone like Bo Bennett.
As for covering the property accessors race or the law director. Lets be honest less then 10% of all residents (voting eligible and none eligible combined) actually gave a darn about the mayor's race. Maybe one percent will give about the other races.
It is sad but true.
Well, I got another vote to go cover...the CMA's
BHornback - are you incapable of a comment that doesn't call somebody names?
If I'm an "extremist liberal," then you're the king of the universe.
Could you maybe just have a conversation, w/o the name calling, for once?
Well, Rachel Craig aka binRbishop could you comment to a post without inferring my name? I know you can't. It's ok, you just can't think of anything without thinking of me.
I thought the switch to Blogger-only comments was supposed to elevate discourse, Donila. ;-)
Could you maybe just have a conversation, w/o the name calling, for once?
Apparently not.
And for "inferring", I do not think that word means what you think it means.
You just can't quit me. Although I have never participated in your infatuation of me. Other than being ME! Sad! Sad!
Mr. Hornback,
I've always tried to tolerate you. However, I have just turned a corner. I would like to say that, IMHO, you are an awful excuse of a human being.
Unrelated:
http://memegenerator.net/instance/11395685
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