The Joke's on London Voters

LONDON, April 29, 2008— -- The race for mayor of London is such a compelling political drama — some would say circus — that it will be hard to fill the British entertainment vacuum after the May 1 election.

The contest has more than a dozen candidates, but the two front-runners have become the focus of the most attention, almost as if they had scripted one-liners for each other and booked themselves as a double act.

The incumbent mayor, Ken Livingstone, is a combative dyed-in-the-wool leftist. He is widely portrayed as a class warrior (he used to be called "Red Ken"), who has ruled City Hall with an iron fist for eight years, installed a controversial congestion zone fee for cars and has defied critics who say he has given jobs to corrupt officials.

"If I believe what I read in the papers, I wouldn't vote for myself," said Livingstone, who is a member of Britain's governing Labor Party.

The mayor's main challenger, Boris Johnson, is conservative, eccentric, and from a privileged background. He also cultivates the image of a witty buffoon. Before running for London mayor, Johnson was most famous for his exits. He was fired from his first job, as a reporter at The Times newspaper, for reportedly making up a quote.

He then won a Conservative Party seat in the U.K. parliament, and was promoted to a prominent position as Shadow Cabinet Minister for the Arts, but was demoted for lying about an extra-marital affair. When found out, Johnson responded with one of his trademark dismissive quips, calling the allegations "an inverted pyramid of piffle."

Livingstone and Johnson have lately been joined by the third-ranked contender, former Police Chief Brian Paddick of the Liberal Democrats, Britain's third party, in a series of televised debates.

The encounters have been less notable for bringing the candidates' positions into sharp relief than for bringing out their personalities. And given that none of them plans to make any fundamental changes in the way London is run, personality may well be the deciding factor at the polls.