All politics are local, they say

Megan McArdle (formerly "Jane Galt") talks about the oddity of heavily Democratic New York City electing a string of Republican mayors:

For most offices, like city council, the Democratic primaries decide the election. That means that there are a lot of extremely powerful interest groups with very powerful electoral machines invested in the primaries. And they are far to the left of both America, and most of New York, which is why City Council meetings tend to sound like the forlorn remnants of a Socialist Worker's Reading Group.

Of course, that last quip applies equally well to a lot of cities . . . Toronto, for example.