We are now just five days away from the 2013 Municipal Primary Election. I know you're all riveted on the edge of your seats.
Don't laugh. These elections are likely more important, and have a bigger effect on your everyday life than that vote you spent all that time standing in line to make last November.
Last night on our 'Live From the Newsroom' live-stream web broadcast, I was joined by Springfield Republican Chairman Mike Puppio and Democratic Swarthmore Mayor Rick Lowe to discuss the primary.
If you missed the show, you can catch the replay here.
In light of the fact that voters routinely stay away in droves during these off-year votes, I set the line for turnout at 15 percent and asked both men if they would go over or under. Both went over, with Puppio thinking maybe 18 percent will show up to vote, and Lowe coming in just a tad less in between our two numbers.
Puppio echoed a point that I made, that the positions being voted on Tuesday, largely local candidates for ruling bodies such as borough council, township and school boards, have a bigger effect of citizens' lives than they think.
"These are the jobs that get your trash picked up," Puppio said.
I couldn't resist the opportunity to ask both men about the GOP's dwindling edge when it comes to voter registration. Lowe insisted county Democrats are about to invade what up to this point has been an impenetrable fortress, the Media Courthouse. I'm not so sure.
Puppio said that despite gains by Democrats, and the fact that the county is voting Democrat in national races, the GOP has held its grip on the courthouse because of the quality of the candidates.
We'll find out if that will change in November, when two seats are up on County Council, as well as races for all three county row offices, as well as seats on the Court of Common Pleas.
We'll see if Lowe and the Democrats can make good on their boast.
It's like the Final Frontier, the Media Courthouse.
Lowe and Dem boss David Landau better hope they can make like William Shatner, going where no man - or at least no Democrat - has gone before.
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