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Delco GOP Steamrolls to Victory
What did yesterday's elections results tell us about this county?
They told us that if it ain't broke people won't vote to fix it.
No matter how hard Democrats, particularly county council candidate David Landau tried to convince voters that one-party county government was a corrupt failure, the voters didn't buy it.
Turn-out was very light. Some people would say it was awful. So many people neglecting their civic duty and staying home.
But it would be unfair to say that most of them stayed home. Actually most of them went to work, ran errands, took care of their children (many of whom were home from school due to an "in-service" day for teachers) and did other things they considered more important than voting in a local election.
Light voter turnout generally reflects voter satisfaction with the status quo.
As hard as Landau and the Democrats tried to rev them up to turn out the patronage ne're do-wells it didn't work. Perhap's because people's impressions didn't conform with the Dem's negative message.
In a state or national election, negativity often works because people don't actually know many people who actually know the candidates. The closer things get to home, the less aggressively negative campaigns work. They turn off more voters than they energize. And they can energize the wrong voters. That is to say, the opposition's voters.
The fact is, this county's government works pretty hard and pretty well with the notable exception of the county's computer/IT department.
During the campaign, Republican Christine Cannon opined that the county's web site is pathetic. That it needs to get easier to access and more user friendly. She's right. And last night proved her point. Computer clitches failed to get election results posted in a timely fashion. While every other county in the region was showing off their election results, our government web site was showing nothing but zeros until nearly 10 p.m.
Even while basking in this lop-sided victory, out-going county council chairman and Middletown GOP leader Andy Reilly expressed dismay at the failure of the county's IT system. So much so that he suggested heads could roll as a result.
We'll see.
In the meantime, the GOP continues it impressive string of winning county elections. Despite trending demographics. Despite general dissatisfaction with a Republican administration in Washington and despite recent Democratic wins in the county, the GOP rolled on. It was an impressive win for Reilly in particular who acted as campaign manager for three county council candidates.
They told us that if it ain't broke people won't vote to fix it.
No matter how hard Democrats, particularly county council candidate David Landau tried to convince voters that one-party county government was a corrupt failure, the voters didn't buy it.
Turn-out was very light. Some people would say it was awful. So many people neglecting their civic duty and staying home.
But it would be unfair to say that most of them stayed home. Actually most of them went to work, ran errands, took care of their children (many of whom were home from school due to an "in-service" day for teachers) and did other things they considered more important than voting in a local election.
Light voter turnout generally reflects voter satisfaction with the status quo.
As hard as Landau and the Democrats tried to rev them up to turn out the patronage ne're do-wells it didn't work. Perhap's because people's impressions didn't conform with the Dem's negative message.
In a state or national election, negativity often works because people don't actually know many people who actually know the candidates. The closer things get to home, the less aggressively negative campaigns work. They turn off more voters than they energize. And they can energize the wrong voters. That is to say, the opposition's voters.
The fact is, this county's government works pretty hard and pretty well with the notable exception of the county's computer/IT department.
During the campaign, Republican Christine Cannon opined that the county's web site is pathetic. That it needs to get easier to access and more user friendly. She's right. And last night proved her point. Computer clitches failed to get election results posted in a timely fashion. While every other county in the region was showing off their election results, our government web site was showing nothing but zeros until nearly 10 p.m.
Even while basking in this lop-sided victory, out-going county council chairman and Middletown GOP leader Andy Reilly expressed dismay at the failure of the county's IT system. So much so that he suggested heads could roll as a result.
We'll see.
In the meantime, the GOP continues it impressive string of winning county elections. Despite trending demographics. Despite general dissatisfaction with a Republican administration in Washington and despite recent Democratic wins in the county, the GOP rolled on. It was an impressive win for Reilly in particular who acted as campaign manager for three county council candidates.
posted by Spencerblog at
7:10 AM
12 Comments:
Delco does need between 1 and 3 democrats on the county council to provide variety and Bi-partisanship, just as Philadelphia needs more Republicans in City Council and someday the mayor's office (Note: Mike Nutter's still the best choice Philadelphia's made in years, I think he's more qualified than Rendell was entering his first term)
However, the whole "Machine" campaign combined with Landau's ACLU background was a total turn-off to me.
The Delco Dems should work together and combine their campaign in order to pool campaign funds. They should have an interactive website with candidates backgrounds and platforms. Most importantly, rather than focus on the negative, they should focus their efforts on benefitting seniors and positive ideas to make the quality of life in the county better. I know they attempted to do so with the latter point, but I think the approach was wrong. In the debates, I heard lines such as "Bucks County has this department, why don't we" To me, this approach seemed more whiny than inventive.
So, steve, in other words, the Democrats should have done exactly what the Republicans did!
What win? Yeah they should have won. This is rocket science.
Don't be sore loser Mr Anonymous... Move to Philadelphia if you like the way Democrats run a municipality. I like Delaware County. This is a nice place to live because of our strong leadership. That is why we decided not change things to be more like Philadelphia.
Delco needs Democrats on County Council why? To provide variety? What the heck does that mean?
Every two years for almost thirty years now the voters have had a chance to institute a minority seat, and each time they decline.
That's democracy. Nobody has a guaranteed win. Why should the Democrats be guaranteed a seat?
I am also not quite sure how it would have helped the Democrats to "pool their campaign funds." You mean that if Anne O'Keefe took her $15,000, and John Innelli took his $10,000, and added it to David Landau's $150,000 so that they all three had $175,000 to share, that would have mattered? How do you figure?
You all need to relax. Maybe this was not the time because the Demos did not field the right team. Landau is an individual,and selfish, and not smart at political strategy. He thought he was running a race that you could win as an individual, but this is a team position. For all the money he raised from his friends and family, he wasted so much of it on bullet pieces and robo calls that only promoted himself to the exclusion of his mates--not realizing (or maybe he did) that by promoting himself to the exclusion of his running mates he pretty much assured a republican victory--and he lost margin from past elections. What a way to spend 200K.
A guy like Landau is not good for anybody. He is a trouble maker. Trouble makers never get anything accomplished except stirring the pot. They don't do anything productive, everything they do is counter productive. Some people think that that is good for government. To put trouble makers in there "to clean up". All they really do is grind everything to a halt with their grandstanding and cause ill will amongst everyone. At least with the people in there right now, and it appears the newly elected folks will be the same, county government functions flawlessly without any fan fare, grand standing or ill will. Just how I like it.
Wow and thank you Pat:
I now know why the dems lost county council, it is because they did not equally spread/share the wealth. How undemocratic it was for Landau to hoard $150,000.00 while his friends had substantially less. Whatever happened to the democratic slogan "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need"? Oh I digress!
You make good words, e. Great words.
E and Randal:
I agree that peopl being troublemakers just to be troublemakers is asinine, but following along to the beat of the pied piper is likewise asinine and deprives me, a taxpayer, of honest services. I believa divergence of opinion is needed, liberla, conservative, moderate, because it is at the confluence that great idas and policies are born. right now, all we are doing is treadin water, and two years form now, nothing will be any different. All the rhetoric and promises made by Cannon, Lewis and McGarrigle is just that...I cannot wait to see how many are followed through on and ahow many we will be told "cost too much" and we don't want to have raise taxes. Let me just say this, you get what you pay for, and the level of ocunty services, while some might think are great, has declined in the last teo years because the County Council has refused to get on a program of small increments of tax increases (everything goes up--gas, healthcare, salaries, paper, ink, etc.) and has developed limited revenue sources(except for casino money which should not be being misused to avoid raising taxes, but should instead be limited to spurring new community development) and has said that there is no fat in the County government to cut.
I think this time the rs were forced to make som promises, which they will not keep, and the beginning of the end of one party domination began right here.
We will be watching and waiting.
Good government doesn't always mean adding more and more programs and layers of democracy. What's bad about not raising taxes? Let me keep my money and spend it as I see fit, not the government.
Let's be honest here now that the election is over. What good would one democrat do on County Council. One vote out of 5 means nothing, if the other 4 stick together. To get what everyone seems to want, you would need two open minded republicans, to open minded democrats and one open minded person who swings both ways (get your mind out of the gutter).
That is some fantasy land crap that will never happen, at least in the near future. The way politics is going, it is way to cut throat for people like that to get elected.
That one democratic vote would always go against the republicans and just mouth off, be counter productive and grind everything to a halt to grandstand for more power.
No good would come of it.
Thanks randal.
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