Jim Keane’s margin of victory over Paul Clark and Jimmy Griffin in Tuesday’s primary election has been deemed surprising. It was large—Keane got 53 percent of the vote, to Clark’s 25 percent and Griffin’s 22 percent—but I don’t know that it was surprising. Only 19 percent of eligible voters took the time to go to the polls, no doubt because the campaign for the Democratic line in November’s general election has been a yawn, a series of lazy smears and precious little talk about policy matters, on which Clark and Keane differ very little. A low turnout comprises voters motivated not by issues or candidates but by party loyalty or an affiliation—with a union, for example—and those voters were always all with Keane, excepting the handful who were sentimentally devoted to Griffin.

Peter Cutler, the mayor’s communications man, has accused me several times of being cynical about public servants and government in general. But I’m not, and as evidence I present with great admiration two resolutions considered in the Common Council this past Tuesday.