All-Stars in the Lead

Written by: Tara Liloia on Apr 24, 2007 1:52 PM EDT

There are just three candidates left in the 2007 Grassroots All-Star competition -- narrowed down from a field of seven.

Darcy Burner (WA-8), technologist and community leader, is currently in the lead with 50.86% of the vote.

Charlie Brown (CA-4), a former rescue helicopter pilot and avid outdoorsman, is celebrating his final-round status on his official campaign blog. A push from his supporters could boost him up over his current 49.14% to trump Darcy's total.

And Eric Massa (NY-29), cancer outreach advocate and former Naval Officer, has a DFA Grassroots All-Stars voting request front-and-center on his campaign website. Any surge in votes for one of these three campaigns could change the outcome of this race dramatically.

Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) can seem mystifying. If you're wondering how it's possible for Darcy and Charlie to share 100% of the vote, you should take a look at the explanation of how IRV works at Wikipedia. In short, IRV allows citizens to vote their conscience without creating a "spoiler effect" and guarantees that the winning candidate receives at least 50% of the vote. Because we're using IRV Eric Massa could easily jump out of third place and into the lead with just a few more votes. Don't count Eric out!

All three of these candidates have made a strong commitment to bottom-up government. They ask, they listen, and they create lasting change. If you haven't voted, there's no time to waste. If you haven't asked your friends to support your candidate, the time is now. The challenge will come to a close Wednesday night at midnight and the winner will be announced shortly afterwards.

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