March Power Rankings

It makes sense Mayor Quimby is here, I promise.
Well, as much sense as any of my header photos ever make.

My uncle in South Carolina was some kind of elected official in the small town where he and my aunt lived. I don't remember what it was exactly. He certainly wasn't mayor but he was something where every few years he'd have to file paperwork and run a campaign. My brother, ever helpful as he was, suggested a campaign slogan for our uncle one year. It was simple enough to remember and, much to our disappointment, he decided against it. The proposed slogan was "Vote for Uncle Wendy" because, as my brother put it, who isn't going to vote for their uncle?

It turns out he didn't need that slogan as he won reelection every time until he decided not to seek reelection. 

What does any of that have to do with Tormenta or even, more broadly, League One? Nothing really, but it's March Power Rankings Time where nothing has anything to do with anything. We just rank the teams on the important criteria that matters.

Three games have been played. 

Not by each team, just three total games in the league. After spending Monday's post not overreacting, I think it's fair to say that one week in to a season where half the league hasn't played a game yet is more than enough time to update our power rankings. 

Now that we have actual results, we don't have to go by manager handsomeness or year the city was founded. We can use some of the data we've gleaned from the games and rank the teams from top to bottom.

We could do that, but there are already plenty of sites that do that with better information and analysis then I could. So we're not going to do that. No, we're ranking teams this month based on the age of their city's mayor because there can be no better correlation between a teams performance than how young their city's highest elected official is. (Also, Windsor and Statesboro, someone there needs to create a wikipedia page for your mayor. It's embarrassing they don't have one. And by embarrassing, I mean it was annoying to me to have to go digging around for information rather than just finding it on one spot.)

I think we're going to start trying to go from 12 to 1, you know, build the suspense. If I change it up next month and we go from 1-12, forget that I said anything. Last months rankings are in parentheses to make this seem like it's a consistent thing from month to month and not just a random collection of facts.

March Power Rankings

12. Lexington (Prev. 5T)  (Linda Gorton, 75) - I don't know how Lexington does their mayoral elections, but in 2022 Gorton received 71 percent of the vote in the first round, but for some reason, had to go to a second round where she faced the person who finished second. She again got 71 percent of the vote to be re-elected to her second term. The former city councilwoman is also a registered nurse. That is pretty much the extent of her wikipedia page.

11. Charlotte (Prev. 2) (Vi Lyles, 71) - Lyles is currently serving her third term as Mayor of Charlotte, having been elected in 2017 and reelected in 2019 and again in 2022. I have no idea how long a term in for the mayor of of Charlotte or how any of this works. Is it like British Parliament where you just call for elections from time to time? Charlotte fans, help me out.  She won 68.4 percent of the vote in 2022 and is the first African-American female mayor in the city's history. 

10. Greenville (Prev. 5T) (Knox White, 70) - I'm just going to say it since we're all thinking it. Knox White should be mayor of Knoxville. It makes sense. You know it. I know it. We all know it. Yet here his is, mayor of Greenville since the Clinton administration. Yes, he's been elected mayor eight times with the first being in 1995. He has announced he won't run in 2027 because I guess 32 years is long enough to be mayor. The mayor before White served from 1983-1995, meaning my brother, who just turned 40 last month, has only seen two Greenville mayors in his lifetime. Knox served 10 years as a city council member before being elected mayor.

9. Omaha (Prev. 9) (Jean Louise Stothert, 70) Born just 12 days after Knox White, Stothert has served as mayor of Omaha since 2013. She ran for the Nebraska legislature in 2006 but lost by 14 votes. The first woman to be elected Mayor of Omaha, she has been re-elected twice and survived a recall attempt in 2019 that was centered around concerns about infrastructure and potholes. I say "survived a recall attempt," but I don't think the people of Omaha literally kill politicians they recall from office. Like Mayor Gorton in Lexington, Stothert worked as a nurse before getting into politics.

8. Spokane (Prev. 10) (Lisa Jo Brown, 67) - Brown has a storied political career that began the same year I started high school when she was elected to the Washington House of Representatives in 1993. (I'll save you the trouble of doing the math, I'm 45.) She served as both minority and majority leader of the Washington Senate and also served as Chancellor of Washington State University-Spokane for a time. She was appointed as director of the Washington State Director of Commerce where she served from 2019 to 2023 when she resigned to run for mayor of Spokane. She has only been in office since January 2 of this year and yet all the city's problems haven't been solved. What are you even doing, Mayor Brown? 

7. Central Valley - Fresno (Prev. 11) (Jerry Dyer, 64) - I never really know what to expect when starting these and sometimes you come across a wikipedia page that makes you think that this was a mistake. Dyer was elected mayor of Fresno in 2020 and began serving on January 5, 2021. Before that, he spent 18 years as the Fesno Chief of Police. But then we get to the third paragraph that begins "In 1985, Dyer was alleged to be involved in an extra-marital relationship with a 16 year old minor." In a 2001 interview, he refused to talk about the allegations. Also in 2001, a lawsuit was filed against Dyer for creating a hostile work environment by making several racially and sexually insensitive comments. The case was settled for $200,000. He was elected in 2022 with 51.56 percent of the vote. Far be it for me to tell the good people of Fresno how to vote, but I've got to think there's someone else in the city that could do the job.

6. Chattanooga (Prev. 7) (Tim Kelly, 56) - I have a cousin named Tim Kelly, but this is not him. This Tim Kelly actually co-founded Chattanooga FC, who are playing in MLS Next Pro this season. I have no knowledge of how Red Wolves fans feel about Kelly. He was roommates in college with Brent Forrester, who wrote for The Simpsons and was a showrunner for The Office. Kelly was the top vote getter in the primary and won the runoff with nearly 60 percent of the votes. He plans to see reelection in 2025.

5. Knoxville (Prev. 4) (Indya Kincannon, 52) - Now in her second term, Kincannon's first election saw her finish second in the primary election but won in the general election with 52.4 percent of the vote. She was reelected in 2023 with 57 percent. Not so fun fact: My wife interviewed for a job in Knoxville several years ago. This could be a One Knox blog if things had gone differently. You Knoxville fans really dodged a bullet there. Between you and me, I'm glad they didn't go differently, but if my wife asks, of course I wanted her to get the job. Where were we? Oh yes, Kincannon came under fire for a secretive hiring process for Knoxville's new police chief in 2022 in an effort to avoid open records laws. Don't do that. 

4. Madison (Prev. 8) (Satya Rhodes-Conway, 52) - Eight months younger than Kincannon means Madison takes the fourth spot in this month's Rankings. Rhodes-Conway served on the Madison council from 2007-2013 before choosing not to run again. In 2018 she decided to run for mayor in the most expensive mayoral race in the city's history with six candidates raising nearly $500,000. She finished second in the primary and advanced to the general election where she captured nearly 61 percent of votes cast. Rhodes-Conway is the first out lesbian elected mayor in the state of Wisconsin.

3. South Georgia -  Statesboro (Prev. 3) (Jonathan McCollar, 50) - One of two mayors without a wikipedia page on this list, McCollar is the first African-American mayor in Statesboro when he was elected in 2017. He defeated Jan Moore, who was the first woman elected as mayor of the city just four years earlier. I don't live within the city limits of Statesboro so I didn't vote in either of those elections. He easily won reelection in 2021getting 85 percent of the votes. Twenty years ago I covered Statesboro City Hall when I was a full time reporter. I can't say I miss those meetings at all. Everyone should be required to attend one city council meeting just to see what actually goes on there. The moral of the story is McCollar needs a wikipedia page.

2. Northern Colorado - Windsor (Prev. 12) (Paul Rennemeyer, 47, I think) -  Even though he doesn't have a wikipedia page, Rennemeyer does have a public facebook page. It hasn't not been updated since 2020, but I hope you were able to all join him for that community conversation he had on May 28 of that year. In a Q&A I found from 2020 with The Coloradoan, Rennemeyer said water was the biggest issue facing Windsor and the city would not have adequate water to manage the city's growth in the next 10-15 years. That was four years ago so I guess it's down to the next 6-11 years. Can someone in Windsor let us know how that's going? 

1. Richmond (Prev. 1) (Levar Stoney, 42) - For the second straight month, Richmond claims the top spot in the rankings by virtue of being the oldest city in League One and also having the youngest mayor. Just an early season powerhouse. Can they sustain their early success?  Stoney, who just celebrated the birth of a daughter earlier this month, was first elected in 2016 at the age of 35 barely edging out his closest competitor by about 2,000 votes out of nearly 100,000 cast. In 2020, he had an easier time, collecting nearly 38 percent of the votes among the six candidates to secure a second term. Stoney is term-limited and can not seek reelection this year. 

Biggest Climb: Northern Colorado (From 12 to 2)

Biggest Drop: Charlotte (From 2 to 11)