Former Fayetteville mayoral candidate Steve Clark put up one heckuva fight in this race, y’all.
Against the kind of odds that would’ve been too much for the average guy, Clark was completely open about his past and soon after announcing his intentions to run for mayor, signs started popping up all over town. Big ones, too.
But that’s not all. Clark received 21% of all the votes in this year’s six-candidate election. He was a serious contender and was right behind Lioneld Jordan who took in 28%.
Incumbent Dan Coody led the pack with 37.5%.
The question now is who will Clark throw his support behind? According to the local papers, both Coody and Jordan have called Mr. Clark in hopes of receiving his nod of approval but neither candidate has gotten in touch and no return calls have been made.
“I don’t know when, but I will get back to them,” Clark told Greg Harton of the Northwest Arkansas Times while explaining that he wasn’t ready to say who he’ll endorse.
Clark went on to say that his endorsement likely won’t help much. “Other than my vote, I don’t know that [an endorsement ] would influence many people.”
I beg to differ with Mr. Clark on that one. And I’d bet at least a few of the 5,528 people who voted for him would too.
Here’s hoping an endorsement comes sooner than later. Curious minds wanna know.
[More at NWAnews.com]
Steve,
I wish I had a chin half as excellent as yours.
Hugs,
TB
Mr. Clark stated he’s holding off until after the two debates. The chamber’s isn’t until the 17th, the evening before early voting begins.
His choice will speak volumes about his true character and whether he was, as some have suggested, just using the mayor’s race to re-legitimize himself politically or if his heart was truly in this for the good of Fayetteville.
He seemed to savor pointing out the many failures of Dan Coody as mayor at every debate or forum in which he participated. Coody had led him to believe that he and Deborah would support Clark when his campaign began.
He and Jordan have seemed to genuinely enjoy getting acquainted. He and Coody barely acknowledge the other’s existence.
If he turns around now and says Coody gets his endorsement he will lose any credibility he earned in this race.
And why would that be, momentous?
Of course he would be critical of Coody, since the first job of any challenger is to make the case that the people should fire the incumbent.
It does not follow that he believes Jordan would be better than Coody. In fact, he could very well believe that Jordan would be a step in the wrong direction.
Whenever a challenger loses to an incumbent, it does not and should not mean that he therefore must get behind a different challenger.