Not Quite Yet

There were a couple of kinda funny/kinda sad things that happened at the Heather Fargo election-night gathering. The first obviously happened when that old tree fell over into the courtyard at Vallejo's Restaraunt where Fargo was all set to deliver her election-night speech.

Fortunately nobody was seriously injured, because if someone HAD been hurt we couldn't  really poke fun at the symbolism of this natural disaster. So the question now goes something like this: "If a tree falls in the election party and everyone gets put onto the street, does it mean the party falls too?"

At least for the evening, perhaps not. But the displacement of Fargo's party was more than symbolic. Sacramento voters demonstrated that Fargo's shameless smear campaign against Sacramento's favorite son was not enough to keep Kevin Johnson from beating the current mayor by over 7 percentage points.

A runoff is certain, and Fargo simply isn't going to be able to ride the negativity pony until November. The idea that she will have to face Kevin on the issues means more moments like the last televised debate, where Johnson probably picked up a few percentage points in the popular vote after demonstrating that he does indeed have a pretty good handle on the issues.

The second kinda funny/kinda sad thing I observed happened during Fargo's speech that same night, after the party migrated from Vallejo's over to her campaign headquarters. This one goes under the heading of "never ask a rhetorical question you don't know the answer to while on live television."

There she was, standing proudly next to Leonard Padilla, trumpeting her roll of endorsements from her "former adversaries" in the mayoral election, when Mayor Fargo spotted fellow mayoral candidate Sean Eldridge in the crowd.

Without a moment's pause, Fargo greets Eldgridge in the middle of her speech and asks, "are you ready to come up here on stage, too, Sean?"

A pregnant pause fills the primetime airwaves on KCRA's live broadcast, and then a voice (that sounds a lot like Sean's) sheepishly echoes from off-camera, "Not quite yet."

It was a hilarous and pathetic moment that will be repeated in the hearts and minds of thousands of on-the-fence Fargo supporters between now and November's runoff. Many of us, in our own way, will have to reconcile our historic loyalties to Fargo with the reality that a new day is dawning... and the Sacramento sun is shining on Kevin Johnson.