--30--

*As many of you know, Katie Brodie -- or should I say, Commish-elect Brodie? -- is the sister of former S.F. 49er QB John Brodie (one of my first sports heroes). Anyway, John suffered a stroke some time ago and is still recovering. Katie made him promise not to watch the election results last night because she planned to fly down to southern California this morning to tell him in person what happened. He didn't know whether Katie won or lost until she got off the plane today. (And news nuggest like that is why you read the blog between Huckleberries fixes.)

*KVNI's Dick Haugen wasn't the only one who was confused by that 94.14% vote total last night that actually was the final total. I spent 90 minutes with Frank Henderson, campaign manager Skip Hissong & Co. at Templin's, waiting for final results. At several points in the evening, Frank was clinging to single-digit vote leads over Charles Eberle. When we learned that the totals we were viewing, indeed, were the final ones, I was the first to congratulate Frank on retiring Eberle, a strange bird who was taking up space at the Legislature.

*BTW, Dick H. sez that Commish Dick Panabaker said on his radio show today that he's going to have to learn to walk like a duck -- a lame duck. He's bruised. But he still has his sense of humor. Without Piazza scraping off the courthouse vote, Dick might have survived Katie's challenge. That, and about $20,000 more to run his campaign.

*Henderson, 81, told S-Reporter Erica Curless that he was proud of me for not falling asleep late last night as we waited for the, ahem, missing 6% of the vote. In fact, he even offered to be my personal trainer to get me back in shape.

*Skip Hissong was proud of himself -- as he had a right to be -- that he and wife, Jodie, wound up on the front page of the Coeur d'Alene Press on election day -- with him holding a campaign sign for Henderson. The Press, of course, should have known better than to pull a stunt like that. It's a no-no to provide free publicity to a candidate on election day. Eberle reportedly went through the roof. And he had a right to be mad. That's what distinguishes us from them.

*Ex-Commish Ron Rankin had an awful night at the polls. He pumped money into 5 or 6 campaigns, but only one of his horses came through: incumbent Jim Clark. And he was beaten by Mark Compton (no relation to Dick) in a race for a precinct committeeman seat. Who sez you can't beat a dead horse.

DFO