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UPDATED NUMBERS - NO POSITION CHANGES
The following chart shows the Costa Mesa City Council race numbers as of 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. Although a few more votes had been tallied, nothing changed as far as the positions in which the nine candidates finished the race.

LOOKING FOR A SILVER LINING
Today, still sleep-deprived after staying up until 3 a.m. to post the previous entry, I'm trying to come to grips with what the result of this election means. I suppose there must be something positive in a previously termed-out, 12 year councilman returning again to the municipal trough. I guess there must be something positive about a first term councilman and current mayor being returned to the dais even though he demonstrated unwarranted arrogance during the campaign and became virtually invisible during the last month. I'm trying, but I'm having a hard time with those two "winners".

FOLEY'S COMING BACK!
I'm very happy that Katrina Foley will be returning to the City Council. She's been the smartest, best-prepared member over the past four years and that won't change as a result of this election. Now we'll find out if she is the most patient person up there.

A BLEAK FUTURE FOR FOLEY ON THE DAIS
One thing is certain - if Foley thought she had a tough time the past four years, she ain't seen nothin' yet, as the saying goes. She will now be part of a city council that is comprised of four so-called "improvers" and herself. That means the "improvers" hold what is known as a "Super Majority" - four-fifths of the votes. With those votes there is virtually nothing they can't do if they want to...

SOME FINAL POSITIONS SURPRISED ME
I was surprised by several of the vote tallies. I expected Nick Moss - a really nice young guy - to finish last, and he did. I did not expect Bill Sneen and Chris Bunyan to finish 7th and 8th, though. Both ran what appeared to be strong campaigns, while Lisa Reedy and Chris McEvoy - who ran bare-bones campaigns - finished ahead of them at 5th and 6th. Politics! I'll never figure it out...

WHAT HAPPENED TO RIGGY?
For me, perhaps the biggest surprise was the weak showing made by Jim Righeimer, who finished a very distant fourth in the voting behind Eric Bever despite, from all reports, raising and spending more money than any other candidate. In the last month of the race his smiling face spilled out of my mailbox at a rate that was probably double any other candidate - it seemed that every other piece of literature had his face on it.

"THE MOUTH" HAS ALL THE ANSWERS
That yapping hyena, The Mouth From Mesa North, has it all figured out, though. In his blog entry this morning - I'll paraphrase for brevity - he implies that Righeimer didn't win a seat for several reasons. He thinks the Obamanization of this election (my word, not his) helped Foley score votes to Riggy's detriment. He said Riggy lacked "the common touch" - which sounded very much like saying he didn't spend enough time kissing "improver" butts.

TOO WILLING TO GET ALONG?
Astonishingly, he also feels Riggy didn't win because "he was too willing to get along with the other side and would compromise too easily on important improvement issues." That's right - he thinks Riggy lost because he seemed willing to work with a broad cross-section of residents instead of simply following the "improver" party line. That statement by The Mouth defines precisely what is wrong with a city council dominated by narrow-minded "improvers". It makes me want to puke!!

WRONG SEX?
And, finally, The Mouth thinks Riggy should have a sex change operation. Yep, he thinks Riggy would have done better if he'd been a woman. I guess we'll have to advise Riggy that, if he's not willing to go "all the way" with a sex change, maybe he could become a "transgender" person next time around to satisfy The Mouth.

"THE MOUTH" WRAPS IT UP
So, there you have it on the whole Riggy issue - The Mouth has defined it very nicely. (URP!)

MARKING TIME FOR MONAHAN'S NEXT MOVE
That's all for tonight. I'll write some more about other candidates at a later date. Right now I'm thinking about setting up a pool to guess how long it takes the top vote-getter, Gary Monahan, to dredge up the subject of a directly-elected mayor again. He's back at the trough again and will be looking for a lifetime appointment so he won't have to worry about how much suds he sloshes at Skosh's every night.