The first round of TallyMadness 2015 — the online voting competition to determine Tallahassee’s ‘best’ lobbyist — has been largely dominated by a narrative of upheaval and upsets, with two #1 seeds currently projected to fall and all kinds of surprises up and down the electronic ballot.
#16 seed Jon Costello and his rugged good looks are poised to pull off a gigantic upset and topple his #1 seed opponent Brian Ballard, barring a torrential final-day effort by Ballard and his partners. As of early Tuesday morning, Costello had put together a substantial 60 percent to 40 lead. It’s not insurmountable but if current trends continue, we could be looking at a prime candidate for the Cinderella run of 2015.
Another prohibitive TallyMadness favorite, Ron Book, is, as of the time of this writing, staring down the very real possibility of a first-round exit at the hands of #16 seed Heather Turnbull. The Rubin Group executive vice president jumped out to a small lead before the weekend and has compounded it into a 57-to-43 advantage.
#12 seed Marc Reichenfelder could notch a landmark victory over the NRA’s Marion Hammer, a #5 seed this year. Despite favorable currents for her work on the guns-during-evacuations and guns-on-campus bills wending their way through the Legislature, Hammer can’t seem to garner the stopping force necessary to prevent Reichenfelder from running up the score on her, amassing a lead of nearly 20 points, up 64 percent to 36 percent of the vote.
And while precocious first-timer #14 seed Albert Balido has stepped up to the challenge and mounted a serious campaign to stop the bleeding in what was a nearly 90-point rout last week, his more than 4,000 votes aren’t yet enough to top the #3 seed Mark Delegal, who is garnering TallyMadness votes like a man on a mission. In the most heavily trafficked matchup of the tournament so far, Delegal is leading by a 60 to 40 margin with about 15 hours left in the first round.
Voting continues until 11:59 tonight on TallyMadness.com. As the great Huey Long would tell his brethren back in Winn Parish, vote early and vote often!
