zero local campaigning

That's usually true here as well. This year is the only time I have seen someone campaign. I know him and he's an amazing guy, so I hope he wins, but I have just never seen local politicians willing to go out and press the flesh.

He works for one of the local TV stations as a "one-man-band" (someone who goes out with a camera and gets the story and the interview and such themselves, but doesn't get a reporter credit), so he knows how to talk to people, likes to talk to people, and he's well-known in the community.

That's it. Him. No one else ever.

Probably why we had the same Republican mayor for four terms.