DeSalvatore by the numbers

In thinking about Councilor Ted DeSalvatore's mayor campaign, consider where he was two years ago:

When he first decided to run for Ward 4 councilor, he was able to get 48 signatures on his nomination papers, two short of the 50 required.

He ran as a write-in, and earned 85 votes.

In the general election, he earned 404 votes to win.

Once upon a time, not too long ago, DeSalvatore couldn't get 50 people to sign a piece of paper for him. Shortly after that, less than 100 voted for him in his first election.

Last Thursday, over 70 people showed up when he announced he was running for mayor. Or, nearly as many people who voted for him in the preliminary election in Fall 2005. He might surpass that 85 number in the Fitchburg Pride's online question this week (heavy, heavy ballot-stuffing, by the way by Team DeSalvatore).

What does it mean? Not that much, really. He certainly doesn't have a citywide electoral base, but that's the life of a ward councilor. But when people say the guy came out of nowhere, the numbers above help tell the story.