Voting can get complicated. I live in the 73rd legislative district, which means that last year I had a choice in the Democratic primary between Stacey Newman and Steve Brown. A neighbor I like had a coffee for Newman, so I thought, "Fine. I'll vote for Newman." Then I started getting mailers from Newman's campaign attacking Brown's character, and I thought, "Fine. I'll vote for Brown."

He won, but last month he resigned and pleaded guilty in federal court to charges relating to an earlier campaign. Newman had been right all along.

My point is: How are you supposed to know?

Now and then, though, a voter gets a hint.

For instance, Barbara Fraser is leaving the County Council to run for state Senate in my district. I am going to base my vote on whether or not she changes her vote on a county contract for the marketing firm Hughes Group Inc.

If you read Deb Peterson's story on Saturday, you know what I'm talking about. It was a great story, one of those stories that takes you behind the headlines. Not that the Hughes contract was ever the stuff of headlines. It was small potatoes. County Executive Charlie A. Dooley submitted a contract to the County Council on behalf of the county health department that would have awarded Hughes $100,000 for a public education program about recycling,

The council rejected the proposal. That happened in May, and this paper devoted two sentences to the issue. Here they are: "Also Tuesday, the council defeated a proposal to pay $100,000 to the Hughes Group Inc. for design of a public awareness program on the benefits of recycling. At a caucus meeting earlier in the day, Councilwoman Colleen Wasinger said such money would be better spent helping needy county residents pay their trash bills."

Wasinger is a Republican. Two Democrats also voted against the proposal — Steve Stenger and Fraser.

According to Peterson's story, Stenger soon heard that his no vote had upset John Temporiti, Dooley's campaign treasurer and the former chairman of the state Democratic Party. It turns out that Temporiti's son is senior brand manager for Hughes.

Well, fine. I'm a dad, too. We all want our kids to do well. It's to Temporiti's credit that he didn't try to put the muscle on anybody before the vote.

At least he didn't the first time. According to Peterson's story, Temporiti invited Stenger to lunch at Dominic's Trattoria in Clayton about a month ago. "I wasn't sure what it was about," Stenger told Peterson. "He said, 'I think you're going to have another opportunity to reconsider your vote for the Hughes Group.'"

That's the sort of sentence you'd expect to hear in a "Godfather" movie. I think you're going to have another opportunity to reconsider your vote. Thanks, but no, Stenger said.

Perhaps with the Godfather bit not working so well, Temporiti changed his tactics with Fraser. He invited her to lunch at Schneithorst's restaurant in Ladue. He was accompanied by restaurateur Kim Tucci, who is campaign chairman for Jim Schoemehl, who is running for Fraser's seat on the County Council. As I mentioned earlier, she is running for the state Senate in my district.

Fraser told Peterson that she brought an aide along to the lunch, but Temporiti and Tucci had the aide sit at another table while they talked to her about the Hughes contract.

They sent the aide to another table? Good grief. If you're going to pretend this is a "Godfather" flick, you might as well go to a trattoria. Let's be consistent.

So did they change Fraser's mind? Let me quote from Peterson's story. "When asked whether she would change her vote if the bill were to be brought up again, Fraser said, 'I would look it up with the Department of Health to see if there were any ramifications from what we asked. I voted against it the first time because I had questions of the Department of Health that didn't get resolved."

I am not sure what that means. I can't translate it. But I hope very much that the County Council gets another opportunity to reconsider their votes on this matter. Because if Fraser reconsiders, I'm voting for her opponent. That will be an easy choice. I like it when voting isn't complicated.