I claim other Patrick Coopers and their aspirations are responsible for my search-engine problems ("problems"). But we all realize it's really your fault, Internet people. You search for the other Patrick Coopers.

You google the mayoral campaigns. You want to find the jazz albums. It's partially my fault, I know. You know where to find me. The others, the Patrick Coopers who don't have patrickcooper.com locked up for decades, you have to hunt for them. And now we have some proof:

The cool Google "Insights for Search" beta tool offers the above chart, noting searches driving the data are "patrick cooper birmingham" and "patrick cooper mayor." Was testing the tool for work. Couldn't resist. Going forward, I will work harder to hide and to arouse your interest.

(Also, if this post makes you try Insights beta, my work here is done.)

So, as you know, four years ago, a lawyer named Patrick Cooper ran for mayor of Birmingham, Ala. Fascinated by the man taking my No. 1 Google rank, I followed the race in city blogs and reported on it here.

One of my sources at the time was The Terminal – a terrific alt-media site. The Terminal's editor, André Natta, saw my linking to his site and was amused. He promptly blogged about "The other Patrick Cooper."

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When André posted, I was at the Online News Association conference in Toronto. The post made my day, and I commented. We continued to watch each other's Cooper coverage throughout the campaign. I liked the site so much I bought its "Nice to have you in Birmingham" shirt.

Lawyer Cooper eventually lost, which helped me get back my Google rank… until two years later, when Cooper ran again. I began following Birmingham's news scene again, and André weighed in, offering sage advice on which outcome would help me the most. After a tight race, Cooper lost again. A Bhamwiki page on him held Google's No. 1 spot.

Two years on, last week, I was again at the Online News Association conference, this time in Boston. The night of the conference's official start, the group I was with stopped at Meadhall bar, where Nieman Journalism Lab was hosting a happy hour upstairs. We had time and taxi issues, and we barely made it before it ended. But we found our colleagues quickly. They were chatting with people we didn't know.

As I glanced at all of the name tags, who was there but André Natta. Exactly four years after our initial linking, we'd ended up at the same conference, same bar. "Hey," I said, "I'm the other Patrick Cooper."

This digital-news world was one small, crazy, awesome world.

We got to hang out at different points on the trip and had a good time. He gave a cool talk about truly engaging with audiences during the "If I Were in Change" session, and I agreed totally. Whether from D.C. or Birmingham, you never knew when you might run into your audience.

Fast Company names WhatDoYouSuggest.Net an infographic of the day. I can't argue. The site transforms Google's search suggestions into an attractive and telling visual form. But it's too bad to enter my name and find our Birmingham friend still dominating the results:

But I'm a little thrilled to see the Patrick Cooper rap make the cut.

Meanwhile, the New York Times picks up news of former Birmingham mayor — and cause of two Patrick Cooper campaigns — Larry Langford getting a 15-year bribery sentence. "But Mr. Langford provided one last jolt to the city just before his sentencing. In an unrelated lawsuit this week, it was revealed that he had somehow won hundreds of jackpots at a bingo casino owned by a supporter, adding $1.5 million to his income, according to his tax returns."

Elsewhere, there's apparently a Patrick Cooper who's reptile curator at Australia's vowel-free Qld Museum. Reptiles are invading your houses!

You need each other's help. Tell us now, Fraser Coast Chronicle: "WHEN you hear chuck-chuck-chuck on your bedroom wall or window ledge tonight, don't dive under the sheets "“ your visitor is only the little Asian house gecko who is cleaning up your cockroaches, mossies and spiders "“ and possibly copulating in between to swell his numbers."

Kathy Kemp interviewed me this week, and her column ran today.

Will the real Patrick Cooper please stand up?

That noise you hear is the sound of chairs pushing back and scraping the floor. It seems the Birmingham lawyer, who lost to William Bell last week in a contentious runoff for mayor, is just one in a nation filled with Patrick Coopers.

One such Cooper, an online-products specialist with USA Today, became familiar with our Cooper after some people in Birmingham confused him, the USA Today guy, with the candidate. That's because the USA Today Cooper has a Web site called patrickcooper.com, which drew a lot of traffic from Birmingham in the months before the election.

"I got e-mails from people wanting to meet with me. I got asked to go on a radio show. One family even invited me to their holiday party," Cooper, the noncandidate, says by phone from his office near Washington.

Such odd fame. Read Kemp's full column, "A nation of Coopers."

The column leaves me wishing two things: to talk to Patrick Cooper the candidate and to have blogged years ago on talking to Patrick Cooper the stylist. All I remember of our call now is that he was a nice guy, got as big a kick out of talking as I did and had phone headset issues.

The Birmingham mayoral tallies have run close all night tonight, but William Bell has edged Patrick Cooper by about 3,000 votes.

It was standing room only at Cosmos Sports Bar and Grill in Norwood, where Bell supporters enjoyed live entertainment and periodic vote updates from a disc jockey.

At Old Car Heaven, Cooper supporters gathered among vintage autos as results continued to come in. Among them was Councilwoman Kim Rafferty, whom Cooper supported in her election.

I think Patrick Cooper's loss helps my Google rank more than a Patrick Cooper win would have, but I can't rejoice in any Patrick Coopers' loss. Whatever his politics or success, we are brothers of the same name.

Let us bid farewell to Birmingham's mayoral race the only way we can…

And what will his win or loss do to my Google ranking? WBRC today:

Monday may have been a holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr., but it did not stop candidates who are running in the special runoff election for mayor of Birmingham.

William Bell and Patrick Cooper marched near the head of the MLK parade in downtown Birmingham Monday. Both men told FOX6 News they were feeling tired but confident as the campaign wound down.

Polls are open 7-7 Tuesday, and it sounds like the News will Cover It Live. A story has a quote on how tomorrow may go, from a pollster: "Generally I expect more people to vote than did in the first go-around, but the nature of this could change that. This one's gotten so dirty. That really negative campaigning seems to drive down turnout."

Elsewhere, sorting through the race, Birmingham Weekly makes me realize Cooper and I have some else in common. Gesticulation!

Cooper describes himself as a fresh face for Birmingham, and voters might see that face were they not distracted by Cooper's nervous gesticulation. Cooper doesn't speak with his hands; he uses them to assault the air in front of him with two-handed karate chops. Sometimes, his arms and shoulders join the attack, until he becomes a bad impersonation of Regis Philbin. When Cooper finishes his point, he picks a person from the audience to flash a Bush-like smile. It conveys the pride of someone who slogged through every rehearsed line without tripping, not once.

But at least Cooper smiles. On stage, Bell is confident almost to a fault. He is calm to the point of seeming shrewd. He wears the scowl of someone who just tasted a green persimmon. When he goes on the rhetorical attack, he has the countenance of a man who might poison his neighbor's dog.

I knocked over a glass of wine at a restaurant just last week.

Headline on the piece? "The evil of two lessers." The News yesterday endorsed Cooper but with reservations about a lack of experience.

This blog, as you know, does not endorse political candidates, parties or philosophies, even when they share my name. But, Birmingham residents, I ask you to vote tomorrow to restore my Google ranking.

Whether you vote against Patrick Cooper and send him into obscurity or vote for Patrick Cooper and send him into the digital obscurity of municipal Web pages, do what you feel is right. Your city ballot, in a way, is your Google ballot. Vote for me, the other Patrick Cooper.

I'm still not the Patrick Cooper running for mayor, but I continue to get mail from voters. Their letters keep me interested. As I've told them in replies, I'm now more curious about a race in a state I've never seen than I expected possible. (The voters then usually invite me to visit.)

What's new? The race is turning ugly. Cooper missed a NAACP debate, and fingers pointed all over. Meanwhile, race-baiting and gay-baiting fliers surfaced outside the debate hall and elsewhere. On the more substantial side of the contest, there's still policy talk going on.

Bell wants more fiscal stability before tackling pressing issues such as community revitalization, crime and improved mass transit, but he sees the domed stadium as part of the city's future.

Cooper sees pre-kindergarten pro grams and mass transit as priorities to help combat the city's crime and poverty, and believes the city should pursue its "needs" before its "wants."

Birmingham folks who see this post this week, who has your vote?

In recent weeks, I've been invited to a nice Birmingham family's holiday party and asked to speak to Birmingham minority contractors. The Web traffic from the greater Birmingham area has continued unabated. Yet, critically, I remain the Patrick Cooper who's not the Birmingham politico.

And that Patrick Cooper isn't mayor yet either. As I watched the Al.com election night Cover It Live session, that Cooper racked up the most votes but not enough to avoid a run-off. Cooper now faces William Bell in a January 19 vote. The latest in the race? A recently dismissed city hall power is calling himself "one of the most ferocious anti-campaign operatives in America" and gunning for Cooper. (Weird photo, yes?)

In other news, remember the Patrick Cooper rap? Cooper says he's flattered but doesn't like the language. His opponent is unconvinced.

For more coverage, please enjoy this video, which is in Spanish but, whatever your language, offers the most concise rundown I've seen:

A kind Birmingham family mistakenly invited me to their Christmas party last week, and I went searching for how they could contact the Patrick Cooper they wanted. I found his site but also found an amazing video. Embedding does not constitute an endorsement. (Note: Profanity.)

And here I thought Patrick Cooper the mayoral candidate was my rival Google. Just as Andre Natta, publisher of Birmingham's The Terminal, gives me a great reason to pull for candidate Patrick Cooper — "even if he wins, your site will end up retaking it's number 1 spot sooner rather than later since all of his inquiries would end up at our city's website anyway" — we get a November Patrick Cooper surprise.

Put on your Drudge red lights. Patrick Cooper the jazz musician has grabbed half of our shared name's PageRank. Search for our name without quotes and he's #1. As of this evening, search for our name with quotes and I'm #1. It's like Patrick Cooper me and Patrick Cooper the mayoral candidate split the vote, and the Patrick Cooper of jazz strolled right by. He hasn't updated his site since 2007ish. Not good.