What a night for the local GOP — they won just about everything. And local Democrats were left wondering how could this have happened.
It is very simple. All across the county Democrats pointed to problems but offered no solutions. Candidates for county legislature pointed out the budget problems but had no plan. They talked about the MCC presidential selection process and the FAIR plan, but it was obvious that local voters had moved on with these issues and wanted more.
The Democrats hate of all things Republican showed on just about everything they sent out. Voters don’t care about oversight and transparency — they want candidates who share their concerns. They aren’t stupid, if your argument doesn’t make sense they aren’t going to vote for you (at least in the suburban battle ground that was key to this election).
I also wonder how much of a role quality of the campaign literature send out had to do with the results. Campaigns are often viewed a sign of a candidates ability get things done. The quality of what local Democrats put out was embarrassing. Anyone can make mistakes on literature, but what we saw this year from the Democrats set a new low standard.
Typos on the front page of literature. One candidate’s website on a piece for another candidate. Pictures of men in soup lines used to demonstrate how bad things are today. Opponents named spelled wrong. All really unbelievable.
Campaigns should be about what’s important to voters — not about what’s important to the Democrat insiders. Until they learn this, they are destined to be the minority party in local government, depsite their growing enrollment advantage.
We will have more analysis over the next few day — but for now we need a little time for this to all sink in!