THE DAY AFTER: About the events of the past twenty-four hours leading up to Kerry's concession, I have nothing much to add. I'm sure there's a lot more really bad news ahead for this city, the world and our country. But hey, that's why we have elections, and it sure looks like my side lost this one.

On another front, however, the Kerry/527 "epicenter campaign" has left in its wake an incredibly important change in Cleveland politics: Our voter base just grew by more than 50%.

In the 2000 Presidential election about 136,000 people voted in Cleveland.That was by far the biggest recent turnout -- until yesterday, when more than 200,000 may have cast ballots, according to the Board of Elections. (Yes, I checked this number with elections director Michael Vu personally.) That's an historic jump in the number of Clevelanders who are not just registered, but have actually voted.

How many are "likely voters" in next year's race for Mayor and Council? You can bet there are a lot of politicians and consultants pondering that question today.