What about Liz?

She did get over 80% of the vote after all. No matter how you spin it, Liz Bobo won decisively in her primary battle last week. Congratulations Liz.

Many have now given up any hope that she can be defeated this time around. A Republican, they’ll tell you, doesn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of winning in District 12B. This is solid blue earth.

Still, there are reasons enough for optimism for those who prefer Cinderella stories. For one, John Bailey wasn’t exactly the strongest candidate. He sure worked hard and he’s a genuinely nice guy but he just didn’t excite people. He still got 18% of the vote.

One of those was my buddy Jim. Jim grew up in Longfellow, the very heart of Bobo land. His dad was a founding member of the Friends of the Traditional Fourth. This was back in the time that a keg of beer was considered an integral park of the annual softball grudge match between the Hesperus Wrecks and the Elliott Oaks Nuts. I’m told that is sadly no longer the case.

In all his years in Columbia, Jim has voted for Liz Bobo until this year. This year Jim voted against Liz Bobo more than he voted for John Bailey. His mother did the same.

Bob Wheatley is no John Bailey. Whereas John often came off as over eager, Bob comes off as a semi reluctant candidate. He initially supported John Bailey when John was running as a Republican. When John changed teams Bob sort of unfriended him.

Jim tells me that party affiliation at this level of government is just not that important to him. He votes the person, not the party. He’s a Democrat but Bob Wheatley can likely count on his vote.

Probably his mom’s too if she gets to meet him.

The other reason for hope is that Liz has pretty much alienated most of her loco Dem colleagues with this whole Alan Klein fiasco. Everyone in HoCo loco politico circles has long known that Alan was Liz Bobo’s surrogate. As far back as four years ago she was marching him around to various homeowner’s association meetings introducing him as the guy to preserve Columbia. Liz was miffed at Mary Kay Sigaty for finding her own voice on Columbia Town Center redevelopment and was determined to make her pay for having the audacity to cross her. She then essentially created her own FrankenKlein. I even called it in this blog post back in July a year ago. He of course denied it. The bottom line, nobody else in town was buying Klein’s act outside of the Columbia lunatic fringe who absolutely love the guy.

As a result this political stunt, Liz stands alone amongst her Democratic colleagues. Sure she is on Ed Kasemeyer’s “legislative team” but don’t look for Mr. Ed to get too cozy with her in the coming weeks. Right now, with her fellow Dems, she’s more toxic than Dr. Moonbeams.

So yes, there is hope. Voters in 12B just might choose Bob over Bobo. Stranger things have happened in HoCo.