Despite his the fact he was evil, the Mayor was still a nice man, or at least one concerned with hygene.

Either
1. He was masquerading.
2. He was authenic, in a weird way.
3. He was doing a parody, much like Anya.

Thoughts?

I opt for choice # 2.

The mayor was a politician, and had been one for over 100 years. With his demon-worship skeleton in the closet, there was no room for other vices, or everything would be discovered. It may have started out as an act (though I think some of it was his original personality), but he had lots of time to hone it and it slowly became who he really was. This was evidenced in his last words, which were overly G-rated even for him, given the circumstances.

Humans are contradictory creatures. Just because he was power mad doesn't mean that he should twirl his mustache, tie women to railroad tracks & cackle, "Muhahahahahahahahahaha!"

Also you could argue that his being nice was his mind's way of compensating for his eventually becoming a demon who would kill all or most of the townspeople.

That was never too clear. What were his post ascension plans? In all likelyhood, Riley and His friends would have come in and blasted the Mayor to pieces, and then do a cover up. But what were his plans for after?

I never understood why people can't believe someone is evil and cruel without them chewing the scenery, spitting on children and being half-retarded. Evil is a normal, everyday force within us all. We are all evil to some extent, whether because we lust after money for its own sake or after meaningless sex, or because we enjoy violence or wish pain on the innocent. Historically, the most evil men have tended to be very ordinary. They had simple tastes. They cared about their loved ones. They read and thought deeply. What made them different from you or me was:

1) They were willing either to subjugate morality to their own lusts and desires, or to a cause in which they fanatically believed

2) They were in a position in which their evil could have terrible effects

The Mayor is a perfectly convincing evil guy. Like most real evil people, he is not extraordinary, he has redeeming features, and he is willing to put his own basic desires or his own cause before morality.

Peter.

A good theory, but it dosen't explain "Watch the Swearing", or "Miniture golf", or his devotion to his wife, or wash and wipes by the Skull Closet.

Although I should point out, that none of the Buffy characters strike me as pure as the driven snow, or of posessing the high moral ground. But that plays with the shows "redemption" theme.

I think it explains it perfectly. One of the greatest mistakes historians make is to contrast a man's private life with his public life favourably. Heinrich Himmler was a true animal lover, as indeed was his Foehrer. Himmler didn't kill anyone. He despised hunting, surely loved his wife dearly, described Germany as the only nation in the world which was kind to animals, and generally was a very regular kind of guy: without any distinguishing feature at all even to make him interesting in person. That he had millions upon millions murdered does not contradict this.

Evil people aren't all neadanderthals running around biting people. They are often normal and intelligent, except for their moral lapses.

Peter.

Hey! We're not vampires you know! We cared for our elderly. We loved flowers. Maybe we would occasionally jump on the back of an animal & bite through it's jugular, but that's only because we didn't have rifles to shoot the thing with.

We would prefer it if you would stop slandering us with your Cro-Magnum propanganda.

ROFLMAO!

Peter.

So this raises a second question. What did the Mayor intend to do with Faith? Based on his actions, I think she was more than food for him.

Faith was the Mayor's surrogate daughter, as evidenced throughout season three. He even turned down sex from her (she was pretty excited when he gave her that swank apartment in "Dopplegangland") and told her he was a family guy. When he visits her later as the first evil (in S7's "Touched") he says that nobody will ever love her the way he does. Since she's had lots of love-as-indoor-sport he's obviously referring to a different kind of love.

I suspect the mayor was a Democrat.Nothing more and nothing less.Think Bubba Clinton without the
obnoxious wife.LOL!!!!!
No real diff.between the mayor and Clinton,except
the mayor was waaaayyyyyy smarter than Bubba.

Except that Clinton would have happily boffed Faith...

Actually, that question is more confusing than you would think. Small towns in California tend to vote republican, and are the power base of the state party. Sunnydale is also almost completely white, as was stated by Mr. Trick, and if I remember correctly, Republicans outnumber democrats in the white population. However, Sunnydale is also a college town, and some UC college towns are known as "People's republics" for their radicalism. Of course, Sunnydale didn't become a college town until season 4, it was just one of those sleepy small californian towns where horror movies take place. So my guess would be that Mayor Wilkins would be a republican. If it makes you feel better, he was probably once a democrat, given the number of abandoned factories in Sunnydale. Gosh, this town makes no sense.