With the Salisbury city primary election upcoming on Tuesday, I received a press release from Debbie Campbell’s campaign this evening simply pointing out where the lines are drawn for the City Council race. In the linked .pdf file, the area of District 1 is shaded pink while her District 2 is shaded yellow. I suppose one could call it breaking news, at least in terms of when it hit my e-mail box.
For the most part the area of Salisbury lying north and west of the Wicomico River is shaded pink, except for the area along Pemberton Drive beyond the school and West Salisbury Little League diamonds, which are part of District 2. Much of Salisbury’s minority population is segregated into District 1.
In turn one could make the assumption that turnout in District 1 will be heavier than average because they’ll have a Council race to vote on whereas those in District 2 will only have the Mayoral primary, which may dampen turnout to some extent.
In my mind this gives somewhat of an advantage to the two Democrats on the ballot in this “nonpartisan” election. As we’ve found in 2008, the vast majority of the minority vote goes toward the Democrats and their area will be turning out in numbers greater than average. Meanwhile, most of the city’s Republican base lives in District 2, where voters may have a lack of motivation to show up for voting on a chilly March day.
So if you want to get a Republican on the final ballot it’s going to be definitely up to Republicans getting to the polls and voting for Bob Caldwell or Mike Della Penna. Let the Democrats be lazy Tuesday.
I also got a note from Muir Boda regarding his campaign contributions. So far his coffers are somewhat shy of Debbie Campbell’s and a good deal of his money comes from self-financing. As far as contributions go Boda trails by about a 2.5 to 1 margin; however, both candidates are in arrears to themselves for a significant amount of money.
Neither have attracted a large number of contributors. Campbell’s list includes several prominent names while the two largest contributions to Boda’s cause (aside from family and self-financing) came from former City Council member Lynn Cathcart and local businessman John Robinson, who both maxed their alloted limit.
It was good of Boda to provide me the list, as he sent it to my Facebook page. And while he trails in fundraising at this time, I suspect much more money will come to that race after the mayoral race is set. Once the contenders are separated from the pretenders that’s generally when the tempo and degree of fundraising usually increase.
