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Mayoral bookends don't win races.
Let us pause to reflect on the results of Tuesday's citywide election results.
Lesson Four: Kansas City has no respect for its elders. Kay Barnes' bottomless pantsuit collection and Richard Berkley's vaguely familiar persona weren't enough to drag Mike Burke to victory. Seems that endorsements by former mayors don't carry the same political muscle that they once did -- at least, not the ones from mayors on Metamucil.
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Lesson Three: You can marry into the 6th District City Council seat. Former Councilwoman
Cathy Jolly didn't seek re-election, but she found a replacement-by-proxy in her husband,
Scott Taylor. Nothing soothes the sting of being called
Mr. Jolly like winning.
Lesson Two: Voters know pandering when they see it. The prominent black ministers that
lined up in support of Burke for mayor symbolize a miscalculation of clout on the East Side.
Lesson One: If you work harder on your re-election campaign than in all four years of City Council service, voters will notice. The councilwoman from the 3rd District,
Sharon Sanders Brooks, found it
personally insulting to be questioned by the media on her previous council votes, and she couldn't be bothered to return calls when she was named the chair of the city's
Housing Committee. As soon as two
opponents surfaced to challenge Brooks for her seat, though, Brooks' re-election team damn near wore out reporters' ringtones.
Twenty-six-year-old Jermaine Reed crushed Brooks 65 percent to 35 percent.
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