Mylott Out

As anticipated in the last week or so, Mayor Dan Mylott announced yesterday he isn't running for state representative this fall. For many folks, this news will be greeted with a shrug, a muttered "good," or perhaps worse.

However, in the grand scheme of things, having Mylott sucks out some of the political energy. Whatever else you want to say about Mylott, he's been able to win the Mayor's Office and keep it, and he would have been a name-brand candidate this fall.

It'll be interesting to see if Mylott's stand-down brings out more candidates -- Mylott himself said he expects some names in the next week or so -- and it will be interesting to see who the Republicans come up with.

Mylott is quoted in the story as saying he wants to continue to work on the "challenges" facing the city, but the story doesn't talk about re-election in 2007. We'll leave the challenge business alone for now.