Tiffany Smiley is making a homestretch surge in the 2022 ballot counting.
As of Friday night, November 11, she was closing in on the magic number of 44%, with 43.52% of the votes. But alas, by Saturday night she was fading, and had only 42.79%, which by Monday afternoon had further fallen to 42.53%, then to 42.51% by Tuesday evening, and slipping further to 42.50% as of Thursday afternoon. Down, down, down.
But then, by Thursday evening, November 17, things were turning around. Smiley had bounced back to 42.55%, and over the next five days expanded this to 42.61%; then by Wednesday evening, November 23, she expanded this by another 0.01% to 42.62%. And now, on November 30, she’s up another 0.01% to 42.63%.
Although momentum is now on her side, time is running out and there probably aren’t enough ballots left to get her back up to 43%, much less reach the 44% target number that would give her real political chops.
Because even a German Shepherd running with an “R” after “Fido” would get 42%, Smiley’s impressive biography and energetic campaigning earned her only 0.61%. (I’m sure the “R” didn’t help.) That’s barely more than halfway from 42% to gadfly Loren Culp’s 43.12% showing in the 2020 governor’s race.
That can’t be ego-boosting for Smiley, nor help her political career. She’s clearly a superior candidate to Culp. What went so badly wrong? I’m sure she’ll be doing a lot of soul-searching about that.
Photo: Republicans should run a dog. Everybody loves dogs!