Best Political Landslide

In recent years, so-called Smart Growth campaigns have sprung up in cities across the country as forward-thinking citizens try to slow suburban sprawl and curb corporate welfare. Perhaps no place has embraced the movement quite as sweepingly as Lawrence, where voters elected three Smart Growth advocates to the City Commission this past April. Whether those commissioners stick to their campaign promises remains to be seen. (One of them, Dennis "Boog" Highberger, has significantly softened his stance on the need for a living-wage law.) But in an election that drew 45 percent of registered voters to the polls, Smart Growth pushers claimed a rousing victory.