Mayor Berry had a rough election night Tuesday as voters delivered a stern rebuke to his effort to win approval of $50 million in special bonds, and also gave a thumbs down to the controversial red light camera program. The one bright spot for Berry was the defeat of Greg Payne who was landslided in his atempt to defeat incumbent City Councilor Trudy Jones.

Berry couldn't have been too surprised that nearly 70 percent of the electorate nixed his "Berry Bonds." They blew up in his face when the opposition pointed out that you could not vote separately on the Paseo improvement bond and the sportsplex bond. Still, this is a hit to the Mayor's prestige and power as he begins the second half of his 4-year term.

Voters, however, were not in an anti-bond mood across the board. They gave overwhelming approval to $164 million in other bonds.

Payne's defeat was as important to political consultant Jay McCleskey as it was to Councilor Jones. Her campaign successfully spiked voter turnout in the far Northeast Heights district, and that spelled a second four-year term for Jones and doom for the intrepid Payne. Trudy scored over 60 percent of the vote.

That's all for now as we begin our break. Reporting to you from Venezia; I'm Joe Monahan.