Jamie Lee Hamilton, local blogger and sex-trade activist, says that Mayor Sam Sullivan's recent acceptance of open nominations to be the Non-Partisan Association's 2008 mayoral candidate has turned up the pressure on the NPA board.

"The NPA board, stacked with Sullivan supporters, will need to move quickly to address this major incongruency," Hamilton wrote on her blog, Oldtown News. "This flipper-like move by Mayor Sullivan places them in a difficult situation since it was only late last week that President Matthew Taylor sent out a communique to members, explaining the reasons why they chose to pre-select candidates for nominations.

"I bet the board and other NPA Council caucus members who supported the Mayor and his closed-nomination preference must at this time be feeling political heat."

This comes shortly after New City Entertainment Group president and CEO Colleen Nystedt's February 21 attack on the NPA policy of protecting incumbents, which she told the Straight was "undemocratic and totally counterproductive".