Changing Landscapes

Locally we had a mixed bag. In large part the people I expected to win won, although by a smaller margin than I thought. One open position was taken by a D. One long-time incumbent lost. This was such a long shot that I hadn't gone out of my way to make nice (e.g. suck up) to the challenger. Everyone else I had tried to touch base with at least once. I hope the lapse doesn't come back to bite me.

Not long before the election I went to a candidate's forum to get a good look at everyone and listen to them talk. It was a last minute chance to get some extra schmoozing in and shake a few neglected hands. The usual suspects were there. A few new faces showed up, too, most notably a coterie of beefy young men in suits. County operatives? Surely we're too small for state operatives. Interesting. Unfortunately there's no real way to find out.

There are now more than twice as many Ds in local office than there were five years ago. While I welcome this changing landscape, I fear that even if all the local officals were Ds, I'd still run into some of the same roadblocks, the warring factions, but I'm willing to be surprised.