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WwkVoter, I agree it was unfortunate that the Cranston fiasco got the attention it did, but I'm not entirely sure that it completely disqualifies Stenhouse from office.

And as I've said before, I know that incident will be used against her in this race -- but I also think there are bigger and more immediate issues for voters to consider, like this year's tax increase and how it happened.

Solomon's statements after Avedisian's departure about not knowing certain things, after 18 years on the council, are a big concern.

I also don't think it's true. I can't imagine that Avedisian wouldn't have given tons of information to Solomon leading up to the transition. If it turns out that Solomon did get a lot of information and just ignored it, for example, that'll be a tough thing for him to try and explain away.

On top of that, this ongoing saga with the school department really doesn't reflect well on Solomon -- creating a $5 million asphalt budget, only to raid it, is just not a good look.

And we've talked a lot here about party support. Solomon has the Democrats. Stenhouse's goal is getting the Party of Avedisian behind her -- the votes across party lines that he got every other year since 2000.

As it stands, right now, I think those two groups are fairly close in number.

Granted, past elections haven't had a Democratic candidate of Solomon's caliber, and the 2014 off-year vote isn't a very good guide [Avedisian beat Kirby, 22,000 to 5,500]. But if I were to speculate, I'd say this mayoral election is decided by less than 2.5 percentage points in a total vote of around 32,000 votes.

Avedisian's popularity is still fresh in enough peoples' minds, and Solomon's budget moves are causing more problems than solving them, that this will be a tight race.