Karen Carter Peterson says no

Maybe I should change my running Mayoral odds segment from Race to the Punchline to Race from the Punchline. Maybe the bets should be for the next person to declare they're NOT running.

Yeeesh. This looks like a school board race more than it does one for the highest office in town.

Karen Carter Peterson would have been the front-runner but there are a lot of tough choices involved beyond your own electoral consideration.

Karen Carter Peterson's younger sister, Tara Carter Hernandez gets a lot of contract work through the city and would have had to quit all that if KCP won. That's not the case if Karen Carter Peterson successfully takes Congressman Cao's title, which is the job she's probably wanted all along anyway.

So with Arnie Fielkow, Mitch Landrieu, and Karen Carter Peterson bowing out, megatrillionaire John Georges looks increasingly tough to beat.

There's a lot more to elections than street money but when you're going up against a bunch of no names, being able to erect lots of big billboards and pay a bunch of sign-wavers might be enough to win.

Until someone else gets in the race or one of the other declared candidates can show they have a snowball's chance; we might be talking about Mayor Georges next year.