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About this web site

The wisdom of crowds

I was a little worried that the polling in Chapel Hill would screw up the annual Pundit of the Year contest, but since PPP Polls had Penny in 6th and she actually came in 1st, I think we can safely say that pundits had to rely on their own intuition. No-one (not even Penny) predicted Penny would come first in Chapel Hill so no contestants won on the order.

OrangePolitics hat The following people did predict the winners correctly in all of the races though, and most of them put their entries in before Tom Jensen announced the PPP figures anyway: Jason Baker, Penny Rich, Mark Chilton, Erin Crouse, and Greg Bell!  Each of them will get a gift certificate for OP's Zazzle print-on-demand store.

In averaged results, the contestants as a whole picked the winners in every race except for School Board.  However, we got the order wrong on the Chapel Hill Town Council and Carrboro Board of Aldermen due to the success of challengers Penny Rich and Sammy Slade.  Read on for aggregated predictions...

OP regulars on WCHL election coverage

Several of the OP regulars will be guests on WCHL as they cover the election results tomorrow. Tune in to hear the dulcet tones and considered opinions of Mark Marcoplos, Fred Black, Tom Jensen, Nancy Oates, and yours truly. You are also encouraged to call in with your own comments and analysis at 929-9245.

From an e-mail from news director LMT

 The plan is to have a pre-election result conversation: rehashing of the election season, discussion of issues facing both Carrboro and Chapel Hill, overview of candidates and respective platform, and action plan for the newly elected officials. Then a discussion and analysis of the election results, as they come in, followed by a post-election wrap up.

The conversation will be lead by Ron Stutts and Community Government Reporter Elizabeth Friend.

We have invited commentators that we feel will provide a balanced discussion [...] We welcome lively and respectful discussion that best represents topics and opinions that have been discussed within the community.

 

Date: 

Tuesday, November 3, 2009 - 1:00pm to 5:00pm

Location: 

1360 AM, 1360wchl.com, & Town Hall Grill in Southern Village

Too much time on your hands? Read this!

In attempt to restore sanity to the endorsements thread, I'm taking my response to the comments about comments over here.

Cam's comment was posted around 7pm and the first time I saw it was around 11am the next day, at which point I took it down and responded to Fred's comment.  I am just not as obsessive about reading the site as some folks are, and that's OK with me.  I don't plan to do much more responding to him because I just don't have the time and it doesn't seem productive in any way.

I still don't understand why some people who claim to have such problems with this web site spend so much time here. For example, as of this moment Fred has posted 305 comments on OP in the past year, more than any other user of the site.

Pundit of the Year 2009

It's about that time, y'all.  LIke it or not, the election is a few days away. It's time for our annual contest to see who is the biggest political nerd in Orange County. Click here to take the 2009 Pundit of the Year survey.

Zazzle modelSubmissions are open until 7:30 pm on Tuesday. Results will be announced by Thursday night. The grand prize - in addition to the obvious fame and adulation - will be a free OP t-shirt or hat in the size and color of your choosing.

Anyone who predicts the winners correctly will be announced here (unless requested otherwise) and whoever comes closest to predicting the ORDER of the winners will be named the Pundit of the Year.

Happy Birthday to Us

Today marks six years since I flipped the switch on this blog and started this community of progressive local politics bloggers (and commenters). I looked back at the entries from September 2003, and found some nostalgia (red light cameras) and some the-more-things-change-the-more-they-stay-the-same (candidate forums and Carolina North). In recent years, the OP community has developed a tradition of raising money on the occasion of our birthday. However, last year's fund raising only generated $140 toward the $420 that I pay for our hosting annually. (This is high because I use a service that keeps Drupal up-to-date and running smoothly.) 

I hope we can do better this year, and I'm open to suggestions. For example, should I thank the donors more publicly, or should I be more discreet? Would folks like t-shirts or other gifts to acknowledge their support?

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