Who wants to be mayor of a town of 49,500 people?
Evidently, everyone.
If memory serves, Harrisburg had an election about two months ago, and a Democratic nominee was selected in this overwhelmingly Democratic place. Eric Papenfuse won the primary handily, and one would logically think that he could begin measuring the proverbial drapes in the mayor’s office (or, as Linda Thompson did following Steve Reed’s long tenure, replacing the drapes and the carpet and the furniture).
But this is Harrisburg, where ego triumphs over all else.
So, we remain with a scenario where two of the three losing candidates refuse to call it quits. Armed with 196 write-in votes, Controller Dan Miller continues to play a game of tease over whether he’ll run as a Republican, despite the fact that the GOP seems a very odd fit for him. And now Lewis Butts affirms that he’ll run as a write-in, even though he attended Papenfuse’s post-primary “Unity” rally, got all of 64 votes in the primary and is accused of vandalizing Papenfuse’s campaign signs.
Then there’s late-comer Nate Curtis, who doesn’t even seem to meet the residency requirements in his bid to run as an independent.
At this point, the general election should be a two-person race between Papenfuse and independent Nevin Mindlin, a serious candidate who voters will have the chance to judge come November.
As for the rest of the field — I’m all for maximum participation, but it seems these men are putting their personal ambitions over the welfare of the city, with no credible path to the mayor’s office.
That serves little purpose than to prolong the electoral melodrama, diverting our attention from the city’s serious issues in favor of a phony horse race.
There’s an old cliche that says, “Elections matter.” Except, apparently, among a group of would-be mayors in Harrisburg.
