politics

There's a preliminary City Council election in Worcester September 11. Among other races, there are 18 people running At-Large, and this preliminary will narrow them down to 12 for the final election. You get to vote for up to six candidates. I wish I knew more about game theory, because there might be some interesting angles here. I like more than six of the people listed, but I'm only really interested in about one or two, so I won't be voting for six. Not worth the risk to my faves. If you're one of those types who likes to vote against incumbents on principle, the City Clerk is making it a bit more difficult for you, by not listing incumbent status on this ballot. (It's listed on other, regular ballots.) I suppose you could learn the names of your City Councilors, but it's not easy; there aren't any outsized personalities at City Hall nowadays.

• The At-Large incumbents are Irish, Lukes, Petty, Rushton, Perotto, Rosen, and Toomey.
• Worcester Magazine has an interesting list of how much money the candidates have raised. Several challengers have raised 5 figures; the only 4-figure incumbent is Gary Rosen. The only incumbent I've heard described as notably vulnerable is Joe Petty.
• The wiki list of candidates has been updated to reflect who is and is not on the actual ballot.
• Real Solutions has released a Voter's Guide (pdf) to the candidates.