SWOPblogger

With close to 60% of nearly 300 votes, Judith Espinosa has shown she is a candidate to reckon with in the city's October mayoral election.

While the SWOPblogger web poll was admittedly unscientific (and "over votes" occurred - see comments from original post), it was targeted at SWOP supporters and city progressives by email.

Early returns had Griego ahead on Wednesday night, with the lion's share of Espinosa's votes coming on Thursday. As has been noted, the portion of Espinosa's votes that came from a network of computers at UNM pushed her over the top. Otherwise, the vote was really close between the two highest vote-getters, Eric Griego and Judith Espinosa.

Marty Chavez somehow pulled 3 votes and David Steele is still lagging in the name recognition department, not garnering a single nod.

No republican has yet announced a candidacy in the nonpartisan race.

In the past, splitting progressive votes has led to lost elections. And still could, particularly if a republican that can pull some votes enters the race.

But this election is slated for a run-off if no one candidate garners at least 40% of the overall vote, a number hard to come by in this city if history is any indication.

Mayor Chavez, despite recent decent poll numbers and a large war chest, hasn't reached that plateau in his two previous mayoral wins.

So what's all this say for Espinosa and Griego?

They're both still in the race, and they need to raise some funds to compete with Chavez.