Last week, I wrote that both News-Sentinel columnist Kevin Leininger and I thought that Republican mayoral candidate Matt Kelty's martyrdom posturing over his campaign-finance violations was wearing a little thin. That might not be the prevailing opinion out there among the voting pubic.
We've started our endorsement invterviews for the November election, and yesterday I talked to three City Council candidates -- two Republicans and one Democrat. I asked all of them about the "Kelty factor" -- how his legal difficulties might affect the election. I won't say anything to identify them, because that part of the conversation was informal, after the regular Q-and-A stuff. They were a challenger and two incumbents, and all three of them are adept at talking to voters and listening to what they say.
It was their consensus that Kelty is winning the public-relations battle. Even people who might have had misgivings about the way Kelty reported his finances looked at those nine indictments, seven of them felonies, and went, "Wow! Why the overkill?" That sense of disproportionality is voter skepticism just waiting to be turned into cynicism. My guess is that this is still Kelty's election to lose, and unless Tom Henry steps up the pace, he might discover that GOP infighting is not enough.
For what it's worth.
