Ruminating on a Dave Lopez win

The fifth time was a charm for City Council candidate Dave Lopez.

Persistence paid off for him, just as it did for Carmen Sabatino.

It took Sabatino four tries to best former Mayor Dick Lang in 1999.

But persistence wasn’t the only quality that Sabatino this morning said contributed to Lopez’s victory yesterday.

On his radio show, Sabatino suggested Lopez benefited from city school board candidate Gary Lopez because they both have the same last name.

And, Sabatino said Farrace and Lopez didn’t take on any issues in their campaigns, leaving a blank slate for voters.

Pretty harsh because it only credits Lopez for running a bland campaign that didn’t offend anyone.

I flat out don’t buy the Gary Lopez link, even though Sabatino tied it to market brands. A similar last name to another candidate in another race couldn’t carry Dave Lopez past a well-funded and capable candidate like Farrace. The fact is, both of these guys walked neighborhoods persistently in the run-up to the Nov. 6 vote.

As for the issue void in this race, I’d say each candidate advanced their ideas in this race. Lopez talked about a road tax and refocusing the city’s gang enforcement units. Farrace wanted to stabilize public safety funding, fix roads and beautify the city.

Those sound like issues to me, but it’s possible they didn’t stick because this was such a quiet election year.