Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/115375
Sarasota News Leader March 15, 2013 located restaurant icon's staple. I arrived just as the first returns came in: not good news for Holland supporters. She conceded immediately and said it would be her last electoral foray. Theisen said he was not holding a party, despite his 434 votes, or 7 percent. Theisen, Holland and Lumpkin racked up 31 percent of the total vote. The other two-thirds of the votes were split among the three "winners." As the three "winners" campaign for the two seats available, the fate of those more than 3,000 votes received by Theisen, Holland and Lumpkin will make the decisive difference. The campaign subsequently is about reaching those voters. Page 30 With that in mind, I headed downtown to the relocated Patrick's Restaurant on Main Street. Richard Dorfman was holding court there in a jammed, shoulder-to-shoulder mash-up, celebrating his 2,311 votes. Unlike the Mango and the Broadway with private spaces, Patrick's was full of evening diners as well as Dorfman supporters. You needed a machete to get to the bar. I congratulated him on third place, and moved on to Palm Avenue. Suzanne Atwell came in second with 2,606 votes, or 24 percent. By now I had an idea of how the vote had been split. As I walked into the party in the bar area at Caragiulo's Restaurant, I wondered how a two-consecutive-term mayor could get only a whisker less than one-quarter of the vote. Kelvin Lumpkin held his party at the Toasted Mango on Fifth Street. Photo by Stan Zimmerman