Carol Reed, Tom Leppert's $30,000-a-month campaign manager, sounds jubilant. As well she should: Her candidate could fall to second, as results keep coming in and Ed Oakley slowly creeps toward the top of the heap, but Leppert can't possibly fall to third place and out of the runoff. With more than half of the precincts reporting, Leppert has an almost 6,000 vote lead on Don Hill, the third-place finisher thus far.

"We're ecstatic," Reeds tells Unfair Park, over the jubilant roar of Leppert supporters. "We're waiting for the full results, but I expect them to hold."

Judging by some of the precinct results so far in the Southern sector, Leppert more than held his own against area council members Oakley and Hill. Which should come in handy if he goes up against either one of them in a runoff. "That's the first place we started," Reed says. --Matt Pulle

• Politics