Tom Tait Re-Elected Mayor in Anaheim

If you like the Angels playing their home games on State College and Katella Blvd - or anywhere in the city limits of the city of Anaheim, bad news has struck. Tom Tait was re-elected mayor of the city of Anaheim by a huge majority on Tuesday. Does this spell the end of the Angels in Anaheim? Not necessarily but I will go out on a limb and say "most probably". In two years you can say you heard it here first.

Last year, the Angels were offered a sweet deal to extend their lease and grant Arte Moreno the power to develop the current stadium site and some adjacent real estate. Tait opposed the plan, publicly insisting that the voters deserved to at least get an estimate of what the stadium land parcel would sell for were the stadium to be abandoned. Tait's argument is that the city must do the thing that is most profitable in immediate dollars. His critics call him short sighted. Having a major league team in the city can attract long-term dollars, but apparently after tonight, it cannot attract short-term votes.

You can bet that Tait's landslide re-election - and the mandate (his closest challenger finished with 30% LESS of the vote than he did) he got will embolden him to further push against a sweetheart deal for Arte Moreno to keep the Angels in Anaheim. Just because he looks like an aging Howdy Doody puppet is no reason to stop Tait from pushing his agenda of demanding the price of everything without comprehending the value of anything.

The team's lease expires in 2029 but they can opt out at any point between the end of the 2016 season and the end of the 2019 season. Tait's two year term is up for election again in November of 2016.

Los Angeles Angels of Irvine here we come.