Local News : What If You Held An Election and Nobody Showed Up?
Posted by adminon 2006/11/11 14:29:07 (1007 reads)
Post Election Analysis: Politics Goes to Those Who Show Up
By Jason Saine
What if you held an election in the largest democracy in the world and nobody showed up? Well, that’s sort of what happened in North Carolina and here in Lincoln County on Tuesday.
Only 41% of eligible voters bothered to even show up to the polls on Tuesday. According to local election officials, this was the lowest General Election turn out over the past twelve years and a record low for the entire state.
So after all the election analysis and congratulatory back-slapping from the politicians, pundits can take a closer look at what really happened. The short answer is that voters failed to go to the polls.
Now, before I go further, I want to take a step that most in media will not. I want to disclose my political leanings before I give you my analysis so that you know up front where I am coming from and what might shape my opinions. Another local media outlet last week printed endorsements as if some editorial board thoughtfully came up with their picks in the election when the fact of the matter is the entire staff consists of their family and while I am sure a few of might want to know whom my wife and I voted for, I believe the overwhelming majority of you prefer to make up your own minds. Based on the election outcomes, endorsements meant very little anyway. So, that being said, here’s an election analysis by a right-leaning registered Republican with Reagan-Libertarian philosophies.
Many woke up on Wednesday to learn that three term Sheriff Barbara Pickens had lost to a Gaston County Sheriff’s Department jailer, Tim Daugherty. The GOP had held the Sheriff’s position since 1962 and the failure of the party leadership to hold one of the largest sources of Republican pride had many party insiders calling for new leadership in the local organization. The mood seemed to travel across the state as the state Republican Chairman Ferrell Blount, whose tenure at the state leadership post has been marred with bitter party infighting, resigned just hours before Republicans took a beating across the state.
Republican activists had a right to be mad. The party leadership, which had focused largely on eastern Lincoln County in both the primaries and the general election, failed to inspire what had been in past years strong GOP stronghold precincts like Pumpkin Center, Ore Bank, North Brook III, and others. Pickens lost or barely won in these precincts.
For weeks, party officials talked about how they were working hard to generate voter turn out and Republicans had for years implemented a 72-hour program that consisted of identifying and then making sure their voters went to the polls. Once the GOP moved west past Highway 16, the percentages went way down giving Democrats an advantage.
More embarrassing to GOP officials, the Asbury precinct cast a majority of their votes for Democrat Jane Choate, which is the precinct where for years Republicans held their pre-election Saturday rally known as the “Asbury Rally”. This year party leaders held an afternoon event at the small Republican headquarters in uptown Lincolnton instead. However, looking at the numbers, ultra-conservative congressman Patrick McHenry won big in traditional GOP strongholds like Asbury. McHenry beat his opponent Richard Carsner 514-268 at that precinct.
McHenry, who two years ago stunned many political observers by becoming the youngest person elected to Congress, maintains a very active local political organization that helped him garner almost 62% of the vote on Tuesday despite this year being a bad year historically for Republicans. Indeed, despite the absence of the “Asbury Rally”, McHenry was in Lincoln County the Saturday evening prior to the election at a home event at the home of Jessica & Shea Ballard. (In the interest of full disclosure the event was co-sponsored by my wife and I as well as David and Leslie Higgins of Denver.)
With standing room only at the large home on highway 73, McHenry told supporters that he was very confident that his conservative message would carry the day but that the GOP would end Tuesday with significant losses because many in the party had abandoned many conservative bedrock issues like: “tax cuts, real border security and the principles that western North Carolina families hold dear”.
(Photo: Rep. Patrick McHenry campaiging in Lincoln County the Saturday prior to the election.)
McHenry’s predictions were right.
Other local races continued to show just how weak the GOP was this election cycle. In the race for the two-county District Attorney’s race, Democrat Rick Shaffer beat Republican Colin McWhirter by 50.42% to 49.58%. The district, which includes both Lincoln and Cleveland counties, offers stark contrasts in voting histories. Cleveland has long been a Democrat stronghold while Lincoln has supported GOP candidates for over a decade. McWhirter needed a much larger percentage from Lincoln if he had any hopes of winning. Shaffer won overwhelmingly in Cleveland and secured the position.
In the race for Register of Deeds, Elaine Harmon easily won reelection against GOP challenger Jerry Long. Harmon received 59.63% of the vote compared to Long’s 40.37%. Harmon has historically done well with broad county-wide support and this election year was no different. Long, who had yard signs on almost every corner in the county, only won two precincts across the county.
Long became entangled in an inner party squabble when he failed to name the members of the Republican party’s Executive Board that had voted to oppose the district representation initiative that was on this year’s ballot. Long, a member of the board at the time, defiantly defended the decision by just a few people to become involved in that issue at the Lincoln Republican Men’s Club meeting just days before the election. Many of the members supported district representation. The stance may have cost Long some support based on comments by a number of the members following the meeting.
Long had made the comments at previous GOP meetings that if he could not beat Harmon, he would pack his bags and move.
No word yet on his residency plans.
In the race for county commission, the two seats that were previously held by Republicans Carroll Mitchem and Buddy Funderburk, were to be filled by new faces on the board as the two incumbents both lost in earlier party primaries.
Republicans were able to retain the seats when eastern Lincoln County residents Jim Klein and Bruce Carlton won. Klein received 27.56% of the vote while Carlton edged Democrat Jane Choate by just over 2% of the vote, 26.76% to 24.55% respectively. Democrat Gary Eudy was not far behind with 21.13% of the vote.
Klein and Carlton won in the GOP primaries and both support a “stop-growth” measure known as the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) that Board of Commissioners Chairman Tom Anderson has pushed as a means to slow growth in quickly growing eastern Lincoln County. For more on APFOs, visit this link.
When the new members to the Board of Commissioners take office, 4 out of 5 commissioners will live east of Highway 16.
Voters also defeated ballot questions on district representation and a recreation tax.
In other races, Judge Ali Paksoy beat local attorney Greg Smith in the District Judge race.
In the several races for school board, incumbents Rusty Beam and Joan Avery retained their seats, while Carl Robinson, who faced no opposition, will join the board as the newest member.
What can be made of the election results? Well, about anything you want to read into them.
It would appear to me that the Republicans need some serious rethinking in their strategies and how they will conduct their ground game in future elections. For a party that brags on billboards that they are “the Majority Party”, the lesson learned is that it takes more than those wearing the same jersey to win elections. Without a clear and concise agenda and qualified candidates, voters, yes even Republican voters, will vote to split their ticket. Majorities mean very little if you can’t give voters something to vote for in future elections.
Jason Saine is a Political Consultant, a volunteer fireman, and a longtime political operative in North Carolina. He also the online editor of the Lincoln Tribune.
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By Jason Saine
McHenry, who two years ago stunned many political observers by becoming the youngest person elected to Congress, maintains a very active local political organization that helped him garner almost 62% of the vote on Tuesday despite this year being a bad year historically for Republicans. Indeed, despite the absence of the “Asbury Rally”, McHenry was in Lincoln County the Saturday evening prior to the election at a home event at the home of Jessica & Shea Ballard. (In the interest of full disclosure the event was co-sponsored by my wife and I as well as David and Leslie Higgins of Denver.)
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