Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
Local Government TV
Monday, November 16, 2009
No Republican Revolution in Northampton County
14 comments:
You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.
This may be true, but in a county with that type of registration advantage to the Dems you have to have more than a 3000 voter turnout advantage to win countywide. The turn out was lower than 2007 and that hurt. Bethlehem turning out makes all the difference and they stayed home.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats in the municipalities are very conservative and independent. When a republican votes they only pull the Republican lever or they do not vote. Democrats will split their tickets.
ReplyDeleteThe Bethlehem Dem's really did not come out in force.
Maybe those Democrats saw great candidates!
ReplyDeleteThat or the lesser of two evils.
ReplyDelete"according to some Northampton County officials, over 19,000 Democrats voted on November 3. Only 16,000 Republicans voted."
ReplyDeleteAccording to "some" doesn't sound very official??? Gossip???
What is your source?
"County voting officials do not tally whether general election voters are Republican or Democrat. However, a Morning Call computer analysis of Tuesday's vote shows that turnout in Republican-dominated districts was about double that of turnout in Democrat-dominated districts. That's in sharp contrast to what happened last November. "
ReplyDeleteMy source was a highly placed insider. I called Director of Administration John Conklin, who confirmed the information is accurate.
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:18, Notwithstanding Morning Call computers, the final vote tally shows that more Dems voted than Rs in Northampton County. I'm sure R turn-out was higher in R-dominated districts. That's like saying that when the sun is out, it's sunny.
ReplyDeleteConklin is an idiot. Is he saying he can rig an election with information he can't have.
ReplyDeleteConklin merely confirmed information I already had. So far as I know, he has not been called before the statewide grand jury investigating deceptive campaign practices. So when you want to slam someone, you might want to start there.
ReplyDeleteTHings are pretty bad when the DEms would rather vote for a REpublican than a Longdem.
ReplyDeleteThey do it all the time. Dem's are open minded unlike Republicans
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the unaffiliated voters. Neither Dem nor Rep. I believe the NoCo website said more than 39,000 people came out to vote. With 19,000 Dems and 16,000 than 4000 who voted were “independents”.
ReplyDeleteAs to the Morning Call’s assertion that turnout in Republican-dominated districts….
What the Morning Call article doesn’t say is in Northampton County there are no “Republican dominated districts”. No one precinct in Northampton County has more than 50% registered Republicans. (There is one precinct that is very close – 49.6% as of mid September.) Contrast that with “Democrat dominated” districts where there are more than a 10 precincts that have over 70% Democrat registration.
That being said, I agree that “revolution” is a stronger concept than I am willing to embrace, however something remarkable happened in Northampton County. The focus on the local elections is only part of the story. What is really unusual is how well the statewide Republicans did in Northampton County (with the notable exception of Judge Panella). It seems incredible to me that local Dems crossed party lines to vote for Republican state judicial candidates – most of whom they probably knew nothing about. More likely the Dem voters simply did not vote for the Dem Superior and Commonwealth Court candidates. The question is – Why?
I think Republican Revolution is not accurate and will never happen. Look at the 23d District in NY that had Palin and Beck and Rush and who knows who else campaign and they went Dem for the first time in 100 years. The only time the Reps will win in the future is when there is a battle of individuals or local unrest that has nothing to do with the bigger national picture (like the public local disdain for the LongDems which I feel is who the Reps can thank.) The Repulican candidates were good and professional and smart and the LongDems have been digging their graves for months if not years...that's not a Revolutions...that's a local hillbilly gangwar. The Rep party is destined to split into the clothcoat Republicans focused on financial issues and the crazy whack job right wing which is much stronger and will dominate the clothcoats until the Reps are irrevelant as a Party.
ReplyDelete