We’ve followed the candidates for the last 16 months, and today is the day everything will be decided. We opted not to endorse any candidates, but we are going to put our betting skills to work and pick the winners for the D.C. races.

Mayor: Love him or hate him, Adrian Fenty is taking this contest. Not only has he led competitor Linda Cropp in the polls since late July, his recent endorsement by the powerful Post editorial page is sure to give him a boost among voters who may have worried about his age, his concentration span, or his experience. Beyond that, Fenty simply ran a more spirited campaign, walking District streets on a nightly basis while collecting smaller contributions from more voters than the development-heavy Cropp campaign war chest.

Council Chair: Though in a statistical tie in a recent poll, Kathy Patterson will lose by the slimmest of margins to Vincent Gray. This isn’t because she’s less experienced — the general consensus seems to be that she’d do just as fine a job as Chair as her opponent would. It’s because the council chair race was defined, if subtly, by race. Both candidates represent the District’s polar opposites, with Patterson calling affluent Ward 3 home and Gray emerging from gritty Ward 7. Gray has both the African-American vote and the Post’s endorsement, giving him just the boost he needs to win.

At Large: Though we’d prefer it if incumbent Phil Mendelson could squeak by, we fear that challenger A. Scott Bolden’s well-executed campaigning will hand him the win. Mendelson waited for too long to act like he was running for re-election, and as such, allowed Bolden define him in negative terms, and do so at every turn in the campaign. Much like the council chair race, the contest for this At Large seat has quietly revolved around race. Mendelson has never won a race against a single African-American candidate; he’s always managed to run against two or more and see them split the vote. This time he won’t be so lucky.

Ward Races: More predictable than the citywide races, we’re picking Jim Graham in Ward 1, Mary Cheh in Ward 3, Harry “Tommy” Thomas Jr. in Ward 5, and Tommy Wells in Ward 6.

Other Races: Elenor Holmes Norton is likely to survive the first challenge to her reign as D.C.’s delegate to Congress, while Philip Pannell and Mike Panetta will likely become the District’s shadow contingent to the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively.