Comments on: How Ann Arbor Council Races Were Won http://annarborchronicle.com/2014/08/07/how-ann-arbor-council-races-were-won/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-ann-arbor-council-races-were-won it's like being there Tue, 16 Sep 2014 04:56:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.2 By: Eric Boyd http://annarborchronicle.com/2014/08/07/how-ann-arbor-council-races-were-won/comment-page-1/#comment-322784 Eric Boyd Thu, 07 Aug 2014 18:07:44 +0000 http://annarborchronicle.com/?p=143024#comment-322784 If you assume (perhaps incorrectly) based on endorsements that Taylor / Warpehoski / Grand / Krapohl / Westphal make up one faction and Lumm / Anglin / Kunselman / Eaton / Kailasapathy make up the other faction, with Briere being independent, there’s two interesting results that emerge.

1) No ward leans towards one faction or the other. Essentially each faction is drawn from all wards and the same set of voters.

2) Given the overlapping term structure of council and the significantly skewed distribution of factions to either odd-year terms or even-year terms, with the exception of Kailasapathy, essentially the incumbents of each faction will be up for election every other year.

So, If the voters return incumbents to office every year going forward (a fairly common voting pattern), it might effectively look like the city can’t decide which faction to back and alternates from year to year. This could have a significant effect on perceived mandates for change (with each faction having a 1-year honeymoon before the other faction is reelected.) If however, one faction has sustainably captured the majority’s opinion, you could have a dramatic shift across a 2-election cycle.

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