The Rhino’s John Hammer analyzes the liberal takeover of the Greensboro City Council in the recent election.

For starters, he pooh-poohs the N&R’s conclusion that the election was a referendum on the White Street landfill. That might be true, here’s the bottom line: in an election with 20 percent turnout, then a reasonable conclusion is “that 11 percent or 12 percent of the voters in Greensboro are in favor of keeping the landfill closed.” But hey, if you don’t vote, don’t complain.

Then there’s Mayor-elect Robbie Perkins:

Some people who don’t care one way or the other about the landfill no doubt voted for Perkins and company. And some people who think it would be a good idea to use the landfill voted for Perkins for other reasons.

No doubt some women voted for him because they think he is good looking, and some Duke fans voted for him because he went to Duke. Some runners voted for him because he was a track star and a whole bunch of people in the real estate industry voted for him because some think they will have at least one proponent if they come before the City Council.

On my way home from a brief retreat, I had the opportunity to drive through Winston-Salem, evidently just missing the excitement involving a wayward deer.

That’s when it dawned on me: Greensboro is now Winston-Salem —– a cheerleading mayor surrounded by seven liberals and one conservative, although Trudy Wade will not be simply a token conservative like Robert Clark. They going to sit on the dais and pretend to debate business progressivism before signing off on every funding every request that comes before them with an 8-1 vote.

Expect it to be this way for a very long time. Perkins will enjoy being mayor, and as long as he’s able to keep his yes-women surrounding him, he could be mayor for long time.