Raleigh’s realtors and homebuilders, unless they wake up politically, are about to get another does of castor oil from the City Council.

After trouncing ‘developers’ in the last two elections the Mayor’s got a Council that’s more anti-growth – than, well, Charles Meeker.

In fact, once the Council’s new ringleader, Thomas Crowder, gets through bashing developers they may be longing for the good old days when all they had to contend with was Mayor Meeker.

Crowder’s latest bandwagon is “Infill.” He’s going to put the brakes on developers and homebuilders replacing small old houses with big new ones.

I recently got an e-mail from a new group that’s trying to stop him – Renew Raleigh – which sent an ‘Important, Urgent’ update to five hundred supporters to oppose Crowder. It’s fine as far as it goes but these folks are talking to each other and in-speak doesn’t go but so far. Five hundred people sounds like a lot – but in an election it’s a drop in the bucket.

These folks need to start talking to voters in a bigger, broader way. They’ve got to start winning the battle for public opinion – and getting the public on their side – to get out of the political hole Mayor Meeker’s put them in.

Of course, communicating with 50,000 people is a lot more complicated and costly than talking to 500.

But the alternative may be Mayor Thomas Crowder.