A visit to the mayoral preference poll up at inRich (click here to play), revealed that at 11:20 a.m. on Tuesday 934 votes had been tallied. At that point the five candidates who will be on the ballot stacked up this way:

Pantele 35%
Grey 31%
Jones 18%
Goldman 10%
Williams 3%

How much Bill Pantele’s and Robert Grey’s numbers reflect widespread support is not known. If this “unscientific” poll is any indication of the true sentiment of the electorate, perhaps this affair will soon be seen a two-man race.

Still, one must ask: Are those participants who prefer candidates Pantele or Grey any more likely to be reading the Richmond Times-Dispatch, in the first place, than those who might prefer one of the other three?

That factor could certainly tilt the poll’s results, not to mention the way this poll might be gamed by determined supporters.

Nonetheless, Rev. Dwight Jones supporters have to be somewhat disappointed. They are probably going to try to cast the contest to replace Doug Wilder as a three-man race. The problem is, who can remember anything — good or bad — that Jones has ever done in the General Assembly?

Paul Goldman has some work to do. His publicity-seeking proposal to rid Carytown of all wheels, to make it into a retail Garden of Eden, certainly made tongues wag over the weekend. But did it really help raise his standing among the undecideds?

And, speaking of undecideds, my guess is most voters in Richmond are yet to make up their minds. So, this year’s campaign is likely to be quite entertaining.