Second in a series.
Re: “Tiggs Identifies What He Was Missing”
In analyzing why he ran sixth last week in the City Council election, miles from the winners, Marcus Tiggs landed on a theory to which he attached a caveat:
“This is not sour grapes. I am not angry. I am just looking for explanations about why the race turned out this way.”
Sounding as if he expects to make another run at a City Council seat in two years, here is Mr. Tiggs’s speculation:
“I might be completely out to lunch,” he said. “But unless one is aligned with some sort of group that can amass its members to vote a certain way, one is at a very big disadvantage.
“Whether it is (incumbent) Meghan (Sahli-Wells’s) group, the Community Coalition, or the Silbiger group,” collective sponsorship/backing is necessary.
“The writing was on the wall with the results of the School Board election when Kelly Kent got those large numbers,” Mr. Tiggs said.
“I believe what occurred is – I am just guessing – Meghan’s group and the Silbiger group kind of tacitly agreed ‘we are going to try this out. We are going to push one person and see how that works. We know what we are going to do for the general election.
“They definitely did it for the City Council election, and they threw in Daniel Lee,” Mr. Tiggs said.
“In the past, those two groups may have been losing some of their luster. But put them together – that is a huge bloc of committed people voting together.”
Mr. Tiggs said it again – “I am just guessing.”
No question that progressives won the day in the City Council election. They won two of the three seats and produced three of the top four finishers.
Ms. Sahli-Wells and two newcomers, Thomas Small and Daniel Lee – all progressive banner bearers — were seen running as a single entry.
Ms. Sahli-Wells won in a landslide. Mr. Small was a comfortable second. Mr. Lee was a strong fourth, placing in front of better known community members.
Only businessman-environmentalist Göran Eriksson slightly loosened progressives’ near monopoly.
Mr. Tiggs said Mr. Eriksson “ran a very good campaign” to take the third and final City Council seat.
“The word on the street is that he raised between $70,000 and $75,000,” Mr. Tiggs said. “He ran a very effective campaign.
“But if you spend that much money and you (still) have Lee on your tail, I don’t know what to say.”
