SOUTH PORTLAND – The months-long campaign to keep so-called “tar sands” oil out of South Portland came to an end Nov. 5 with defeat at the polls of a citizen-initiated Waterfront Protection Ordinance (WPO), but that didn’t stop supporters from declaring victory, or setting their sights on the upcoming mayoral caucus.

Bolstered by a 4,261 to 4,453 vote, members of the grassroots advocacy group Protect South Portland rallied at their 72 Ocean St. campaign headquarters after the vote, declaring amid cheers and applause that the slim 192-vote margin sent a clear signal to the petroleum industry.

“The way I look at it, folks, we won, because I am now 100 percent convinced that tar sands will never, ever come to this community,” said Mayor Tom Blake, addressing supporters of the ordinance, which would have blocked tar sands by banning the construction of new facilities along the city’s waterfront zone, and the loading of oil tankers in the harbor.

“Thank goodness to all of you. You have woken up our citizenry,” said Blake. “We know we had the best cause. We simply lost to an industry that I’m ashamed of. I’m ashamed of the money they spent. I’m ashamed of the ploys that they played and of the lies that they spread. I am embarrassed (by) the petroleum industry, and they should feel the same way of themselves.”

Rob Sellin, co-founder of Protect South Portland, said the group will stay together in the post-election era to monitor the City Council’s handling of a proposed moratorium on waterfront construction and the drafting of its own ordinance to regulate tar sands. Meanwhile, the group appears to have set a more immediate goal, declaring its hope of propelling Patti Smith, its other proponent on the City Council, to the mayoral position.

During Tuesday night’s campaign rally, Rosemarie De Angelis, herself a former mayor, told the crowd of about 150 WPO supporters that Councilor Gerard Jalbert is aiming for the mayoral gavel. Jalbert privately circulated a letter ultimately signed by five councilors that urged voters to reject the WPO, a move seen by many as skirting, if not actually breaking, Maine’s open meeting laws.

“Jerry Jalbert would be the worst choice, a horrible choice,” said De Angelis. “That is not who we want representing our city. I urge everybody to lobby their councilors saying it would be a shame and an embarrassment to have Jerry Jalbert as the figurehead of this city. To have somebody who has undermined transparency in this city be the leader would be a devastation.”

De Angelis suggested a letter-writing campaign to swing the upcoming mayoral caucus in favor of Smith, eliciting wild cheers from the crowd and a cry of, “she’s got my vote,” from Blake.

Although such campaigns are not unknown in South Portland – one email blast last year caused an abrupt about-face by the council on the configuration of traffic flow and parking on Ocean Street at Legion Square – public involvement in the city’s annual mayoral race is a relative rarity.

Smith served as mayor in 2012, while Blake previously held the top job in 2009. In a Nov. 6 interview, Jalbert, in his first term on the council after nearly two decades on the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals, confirmed De Angelis’ assertion about his ambitions.

“I am considering talking to my fellow councilors about being mayor, that is correct,” he said. “I don’t know if that will happen or not, but as far as any comments from Rosemarie De Angelis, she and I are certainly not on the same polecat page by a long shot.”

Noting that he and two other councilors campaigned against De Angelis during her 2012 re-election bid, Jalbert categorized her effort to now deny him the mayorship, “political payback.”

Jalbert also said that, despite Blake’s public voice of support for Smith, he, too, is lobbying to lead the council.

“But, as recently as two weeks ago, he said he would support me,” said Jalbert. “One of the first things you learn in politics early on is that, while you’d like to take everyone’s word at face value, you have to understand that there are sometimes motivations that people aren’t telling you about.”

“We’ll see how it all works out,” said Jalbert.

Blake, who won re-election for a third term to the City Council last week, capturing nearly 30 percent of the vote in a four-way race, said Tuesday he is “not adverse” to another term as mayor, but that, “it’s up to the other six councilors.”

“I’ve always said, it’s not a turn thing, it’s an earned thing,” said Blake.

The City Council caucus for mayor is scheduled for a Nov. 18 workshop. The inauguration is generally held at the council’s first regular meeting in December.

Meanwhile, City Clerk Susan Mooney said Monday that a recount of the WPO result does not appear to be in the offing. There was one inquiry into the cost of staging a recount, but no official request has been filed.

Despite public visibility of the highly contentious campaign, voter turnout was far below what was expected. Mooney said she ordered as many ballots as she would in a presidential election year. However, the 45.6-percent participation rate was “about average for an off-year election,” she said.

Perhaps the biggest failure of the 2013 election may have been the apparent confusion over the City Council election. Any time there are multiple issues on a single ballot, some voters will invariably choose not to weigh in on some topics. In the WPO decision, for example, 123 of the 8,837 ballots submitted contained no vote.

However, confusion appears to have been the cause of non-participation in the City Council race. With both seats up for election being at-large, voters were able to vote for two candidates. However, a large percentage of voters checked just one name. Of 17,674 possible voters – the number of voters who cast ballots, times two votes, each – a resounding 4,281 of the potential check boxes (24.2 percent) were left blank.

South Portland Mayor Tom Blake addresses members of Protect South Portland at the advocacy group’s 72 Ocean St. campaign headquarters after vote totals came in Tuesday, Nov. 5. Although the Waterfront Protection Ordinance it championed lost at the polls by 192 votes, Blake claimed the close result means, “tar sands are never coming to this city.”