My duties for WGTD last night were to be at the campaign headquarters of Michael Bell, one of six candidates hoping to be ther next mayor of Kenosha. (Our current mayor, John Antaramian, is retiring after 16 years in office.) This was a primary to determine which two candidates would go on to the general election later in the spring – and I chose to hang out at the Bell HQ because he was perhaps the most interesting candidate in the field – and it was clear that he was likely to be a strong contender for one of those two spots. Bell had never run for political office of any kind before, and to make the office of mayor your very first political goal shows some real guts and maybe a touch of audacity as well. He came to the effort with ample personal resources and in fact poured $200,000 of his own money into his campaign – a gigantic amount of money for a campaign of this scale. But it was an earlier tragedy and controversy which is what made him a still more fascinating figure. Several years ago, one of Mr. Bell’s sons was shot and killed by Kenosha police in the midst of some sort of encounter – and Bell is actually suing the City of Kenosha over the incident. Think about it- someone who is suing the City of Kenosha is also aspiring to be its mayor. All of that added up to the most compelling candidacy in the race and that’s why I stationed myself there, in the back room of Mo’s Cafe.
As it turns out, Bell finished third – a strong, somewhat close third – but third place all the same. What was more interesting to me was how Bell and his inner circle followed the numbers. WGTD had dispatched volunteers to all 17 polling places in the city – students and parents from a superb private school in town called Armitage Academy. And as the votes were tallied at each polling place and the numbers posted, our volunteer would call those numbers in to the station- and we would have them over the air long before those numbers were brought to city hall and officially posted. So we were WAY ahead of anybody else with the numbers and within an hour of the polls closing (by 9:00) we were reporting results with over 70% of the precincts reporting. . . and projecting that Bell would finish decisively in third place. There was no radio at the headquarters except for the small unit I had with headphones, so I was the only person who was hearing WGTD, but every time I heard a new set of numbers from the station, I would walk over to Bell and share them with him. But for the crowd in the room, there was only a TV set to cable access, which was getting its numbers from city hall – plus Bell’s campaign manager was at city hall with her cell phone, calling with results as they were posted there. And for almost the entire evening, Bell and his inner circle were clustered around an easel set up next to the TV, staring at a chart with six columns – one for each of the mayoral candidates – and 17 rows of blanks corresponding to the 17 precincts. But because they were getting their number from City Hall, their numbers were a good hour behind those being broadcast over WGTD. But Mr. Bell and his inner circle stationed themselves in front of that chart and watched as the blanks filled in ever so slowly through the course of the evening- assuming that every blank space was still a pocket of hope, where the numbers might at last start to change direction in his favor. And that change in direction never did happen.
As I sat towards the back of the room with my radio and with my flow chart of the undeniable results in front of me, I kept looking at those folks up by the chart and marveled at their insurmountable optimism that there was still a chance. And even when WGTD was reporting results from all of the precincts, with only the absentee ballots left to be counted, the supporters of Bell and the candidate himself refused to concede. And long after I had closed up shop and walked out the door with my equipment, Bell had yet to concede – and what had looked like commendable optimism slowly began to look like something else.
This is why I could never be in politics- – – my thin skin would not survive five minutes. I leave it to the incurable optimists.
pictured above: Michael Bell headquarters- and the candidate with his inner circle in front of their largely blank chart. Mr. Bell is facing the camera, hand on his chin.