Although Rasoul is running in a longtime Republican district, he and other Democrats hope that Obama's coattails will give them enough momentum to reverse voting trends.
It failed to do that at Monday's meeting when Councilwoman Pam Houchen, who had voted for the seven-district plan, reversed her vote.
Virginia, which originally voted to make HPV vaccines mandatory, recently reversed the vote.
And Ted Cruz could (and will) argue that, while he did vote last year to give President Obama fast-track authority to make trade deals, he later reversed that vote, and at any rate now opposes the T.P.P.
At one point, they voted to return, saying they understood that a special session would be called, but reversed that vote after Governor Caperton denied that he had agreed to call a session.
Then on Friday, one board member, Judge Myriam Lehr reversed her vote in favor of the recount.
The decision on Friday reversed a vote in April 1999 not to pay for states to stockpile potassium iodide.
But after ICM appealed, the organization tentatively reversed that vote in June, and said that its decision to give the project a green light was made purely on technical grounds.
"We may have been hammered on this and we may have made a mistake, but at least we're big enough to admit it," said Gary Cook, a board member who initially supported the ban but reversed his vote on Wednesday.
"Four years ago, if I could have had a magic wand and waved it twice and reversed that vote, I would have.
And she can barely contain her frustration at what she sees as the hypocrisy of Mr. de Blasio, who campaigned for speaker on a pledge to end the two-term limit, but then reversed himself, voting against the change.
