I saw you mention Katrina, Bob, and I have to say the thing that impressed me about Barbour is that he's the only politician to come out looking better after Katrina than before it. Most state, local and national politicians looked inept. He's the only one that actually came out looking like he had a brain and a heart.

As for your Mayor, Goldilocks, let me guess. He won?

The election turned out to matter here as we now have a closely divided assembly, with Democrats taking back the Senate with a narrow margin and the Republicans holidng the state house by a narrow margin.
More important may be a backlash against negative campaigning. Jennamarie Davis, the Republican Senate incumbent where I live, and the wife of a popular U.S. Congressman lost her race for reelection to Chap Petersen. I think she lost because people found the distortions in her commercials so outrageous even by political standards. Petersen, unfortunately started airing similar commercials of his own distorting her record and almost blew it, but a backlash against too much negative smears would be a good thing. Neither candidate talked much about themself, only their opponent.