As Election Looms, The Heat Turns Up

By Charles Sercombe

In the days leading up to Tuesday’s Primary Election, you could say that what started out as a sleepy election had turned red-hot.

Candidates seemed to have become electrified since the recent “Meet the Candidate Night.”

The consensus in the city is that this election is up for grabs in both the mayoral and council races.

Why?

It all depends on voter turnout. The thinking is that a lower voter turnout will likely benefit the Bengali/Muslim candidates while a higher voter turnout will likely help the Polish/non-Muslim candidates.

That means this is not necessarily a shoo-in for Mayor Karen Majewski despite her popularity.

Or does it?

That is what’s so confounding about the election cycle: anything can happen.

No matter how much thinking went into the election and the possible outcomes, many of the candidates said they were feeling good about their chances – yet on the other hand what else would a candidate say?

Several of the candidates spent the week leading up to the election going door-to-door handing out campaign literature and hanging up yard signs. And just like in years past, candidates complained that their signs are being torn down or stolen.

And as it usually goes in a heated campaign there were some calls of foul play over literature being distributed. Mayoral candidate Akm Rahman handed out the most aggressive literature material. He listed several things faulting Mayor Majewski.

Majewski and her supporters said it was a “smear sheet.”