Down to the wire

City councilor Jessie Taliaferro is losing ground to pro-neighborhood challenger Rodger Koopman as the calendar closes in on the election this Tuesday. 

A new poll released by Public Policy Polling on Friday reveals that the two candidates are running neck-and-neck at 40% each.  Only two weeks ago, Taliaferro held the lead at 35% to Koopman's 21 percent. 

A hard-hitting grass-roots campaign by Koopman explains the erasure of Taliaferro's lead.  For weeks, dozens of citizens alienated by Taliaferro's actions on council have been pounding the pavement in neighborhoods across District B to get the word out to their fellow voters.  Meanwhile, other residents of District B have been hosting "meet-and-greet" events for Koopman in their homes -- on an almost nightly basis in recent weeks -- to introduce Koopman to neighbors and friends.

Why does Rodger Koopman have so many friends in neighborhoods across District B? 

Because, unlike Taliaferro, Koopman supports:

• Raising impact fees on new development, to make growth pay its own way
• Protecting natural areas at Durant Nature Park, and preserving Horseshoe Farm Park as a nature park -- while building new gyms and ballfields in other, more suitable locations
• Enacting reasonable rules about infill development and tear-downs to protect the character of Raleigh's neighborhoods
• Putting citizens (NOT Big Real Estate) back in charge at City Hall.

The word is getting out about Taliaferro's shabby record as the developers' "go-to gal" on City Council.  With scant coverage from the N&O, neighbors have taken the story to neighbors in a shoe-leather campaign across northeast Raleigh. 

Word of mouth is effective, but slow.  Will enough Raleigh voters get the story in time?