NSB NEWS.net photo by Sera Frederick. First-term NSB Mayor Sally Mackay raises her hand as she informs her campaign supporters that she's on her way to concede defeat to Adam Barringer in the election.
Knowing their candidate's re-election bid was sunk, several supporters of Mackay were downright nasty, trying to stop us from shooting photos or getting access to their defeated candidate. At one point, I had to yell at one woman to take her hands off me.
Two campaign supporters actually walked up to my wife and I and just stared at us. When I asked if there was a problem, I got no response. We were there to cover the election and we did our job, despite the boorish behavior of a few who showed they had no class; trying everything they could to block us from taking photos inside Mackay's Canal Street headquarters.
One supporter blamed the loss on NSBNEWS.net, saying we were biased. Of course, emotions run high and spirits can be broken in the agony of defeat. It's always so easy to vilify the media. The 112-vote margin of victory spoke volumes.
As winner Adam Barringer said at his own campaign headquarters where supporters shook our hands and thanked us for reporting the news: "The people have spoken."
Indeed, they have, for this was the nastiest campaign waged by an incumbent in many years, from anonymous e-mails with falsehoods to signs in the Westside that urged voters to re-elect Mackay or else the Babe James Center would be closed, were politics at its worst.
The people have spoken, indeed. They heard what the candidates had to say in not one, not two, but three citizen candidates debates sponsored by the Public Watch Committee and NSBNEWS.net, and even a fourth debate by the Chamber of Commerce, though they weren't aloowed to speak at that one.
NSBNEWS.net's endorsements in favor of Barringer and Judy Reiker for Zone 1 commissioner were strongly worded and factually-based.
But ultimately, the voters decided who they wanted to represent their interests and their votes are what counts. Democracy is awesome.