1st Glance at 2014 WL Mayor's Race

With about 10 weeks to go before General Voting Day in the City of Williams Lake - I'd thought I would share a 1st glance at what it will take a successful Mayor-candidate in Williams Lake to win on November 15th...

As of this writing - we know that Kerry Cook and Surinderpal Rathor are running for the position of Williams Lake Mayor with possible bids coming from former Williams Lake Mayors' Scott Nelson (2005-08) and Walt Cobb (1990-96).  The last 4 way race for Mayor was in the 2005 Local Gov't Election - City of Williams Lake and here is how the actual vote numbers broke down:

Name of Candidate	Votes Cast	Percentage of all votes cast
Scott Nelson (elected in 2005 Local Gov't Election - City of WL)	1,109	28.9%
Kerry Cook (Current Williams Lake Mayor)	1,056	27.5%
Dr. Elmer Thiessen	868	22.6%
Debbie DeMare	809	21.1%

I am also advised, through my sources, that Mayor Cook has close to 800 votes secured for the forthcoming race.  Using the benchmark that former Mayor Nelson achieved to win an election - Mayor Cook does not need much more votes to secure a 3rd term.

Granted - a lot of things have changed from 2005 until today (issues, voters moving away, etc) but should it stay a 4 way race, the successful candidate would need probably the same amount of votes that Nelson obtained to win but it is still early days and as we know in politics - either local, provincial or federal -- anything can happen... whether that be an unpopular incumbent winning against all odds or someone else "written off" winning...

Stay tuned...

~SF