Up Periscope!

The election machines were hardly on their way back to storage before the political periscopes went up to scan the horizon for future developments.

Councilman Adrian O. Mapp's mayoral win means he will have to vacate his seat on the governing body and the vacancy will be filled by appointment until the next general election, when the appointee will have to run for the balance of the term, which ends Dec. 31, 2016. The appointee must be a Democrat and must reside in the Third Ward.

The Democratic City Committee must offer three names and the council selects one. If the council fails to fill a vacancy within 60 days from when it occurs, the mayor can name a qualified appointee.

Who might emerge as an appointee? Prominent residents of the Third Ward include Harold Gibson, who with Don Davis was defeated in 2008 by the team of Annie McWilliams and Adrian Mapp, running off the line. Then there is John Stewart, a prime mover of Mapp's "One Plainfield, One Future" campaign. Former Queen City First Lady Gloria Taylor also lives in the Third Ward. Correction: Eke does not live in the Third Ward. Charles Eke had a brief turn as a council member and might prefer that role to being an alternate on the PMUA.

Time will tell.

Two City Council seats will also be up for election next year. William Reid's First Ward term expires at the end of 2014, as does the Second & Third Ward at-large term of Rebecca Williams. Candidates will not have to file until April for the June primary, but the politicking, pro and con, usually begins right about now.

As mayor, Mapp will undoubtedly seek a supportive governing body for his initiatives, but one never knows which way the political pendulum will swing. The main thing is for a mayor to be able to "count to four," as the late Mayor Richard L. "Rick" Taylor used to say. Four votes on the seven-member council means progress for a mayor; the opposite, if it happens too often, means struggle and frustration.

Speaking of Rick Taylor, here is a Plaintalker remembrance from 2009. One wonders what he would say about the political situations today.

--Bernice