Historical Inauguration

7/1/2011~ 11am (EST)
Jacksonville, Fl, USA= Today, Jacksonville installs its first African American Mayor, elected with 50.43% of the vote. In a city of 864K, only 194K people voted in this year's mayoral election, the results split just about 50/50, but in favor of the democratic candidate, Alvin Brown, an African American.

In the primaries, it was reported that there was a less than 30% turn out. Three of the four top vote getters were Republican, Hogan, Moran and Mullaney. The clear winner was Hogan, with 34% of the vote. Brown, the second place finisher in the Primaries, secured 25% of the vote. Moran had 22% and Mullaney only secured 15% of the vote. Quick math shows that 71% of the vote went to Republicans. So just how did Alvin Brown win?

It is generally reported that Jacksonville is a Republican Stronghold. But the Supervisor of Elections office reports that there are more persons registered as democrat than republican: Registered Voters as of 07/01/2011 Democrats: 230,040 (43%), Republicans: 193,940 (37%), the remaining 20% split among other smaller party affiliations.

Based simply on those numbers, shouldn't we expect the democrat to win?

A factor in the race certainly was the fact that Mr. Brown was a Black man. The 2010 Census reported that Jacksonville's population is 29.5% black. While it would be ignorant to assume that Mr. Brown could have captured 100% of this vote, he certainly could have expected to capture a significant amount of this vote.

But the fact that Mr. Brown is Black also could have been a polarizing factor: Jacksonville's history is one marred by racial conflict.

Given these facts, was the race Hogan's to lose? How did that happen?

Interestingly, Ms. Moran (listed as a Republican) threw her support behind Mr. Brown, a democrat.

For me, personally, a democratic leaning registered Republican, it was Hogan's reported comments about the bombing of an abortion clinic. Speaking to St Joseph's Catholic Church, in a joint appearance with candidate Rick Mullaney, who also spoke against abortion, it is reported that Hogan said while he "would not bomb an abortion clinic, it may cross his mind..."

The Washington Post (accessed 7/1/2011) reports that 6026 soldiers have died in Operation Iraq Freedom (4442) and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) (1584).
We have spent over $1.2 Billion (CostsofWar.com 7/1/2011) prosecuting these wars since 2001.

The significance of these deaths and these costs here plays to my thinking: If we are willing to have this loss of American life and all this borrowed money to fight terrorism. I cannot then, in good conscience, support someone who even jokingly, would make terroristic comments.

I wonder what affect this statement had on other voters.

So today, Jacksonville inaugurates its first black mayor. Way to go. Now we will get to see what kind of job the man, Alvin Brown, can do as mayor. Will he be worthy of reelection?