What's more surprising than the Republicans winning all of the key contested races is the margins. That may merely reflect the GOP registration advantages and the fact there were no real wedge issues to define the campaign. Voters basically said they're happy with the GOP incumbents on the City Council and satisfied with the GOP majority in the County Legislature.
Go back and look at the video of the interviews we did with the candidates in conjunction with WBTA: There were few disagreements. There was no big issue to sway voters toward a particular candidate or a particular party. The Democrats just didn't have a big enough flag to wave to say "this is what voting for us means." I've not been around Batavia politics long enough to say this with certainity, but it seems if Democrats want to win multiple-ward seats, they need to articulate issues that set them apart. And they need to unite around the candidate(s) with the best chance to win.
What may have hurt the Democrats the most was infighting. The "Coffeecake Caper" brought a lot of that to the surface, with Tim Paine explicitly accusing a faction of Democrats with bringing forth Julie Wallace to block him from a clear path to the nomination.
Speaking of Julie Wallace, she seems like a really goodhearted person and a sweet lady. I bet she's fabulous with kids. Good luck to her on her quest to be a CASA volunteer. She will undoubtedly do a great job. That doesn't mean she was qualified to run for City Council.
Did the Coffeecake Caper sink Rose Mary? I don't think so. In the end, I think it was a wash. Rose Mary came out looking like an honest, tell-it-like-it-is, stand-up person, which is why she's represented her ward for 18 years. But the Republicans, particularly Joe Gerace, played their cards just right by disavowing Tim Paine's actions without hesitation, which probably neutralized any benefit Rose Mary might have gained from the attack on her.
Word has it it (though numbers aren't available yet) that the City Charter revision passed. That's good and bad. John Roach is right -- the city engineer position should be done away with. But opening the door to the elimination of the Police Department without fully vetting the options could be a mistake.
Following this campaign helped me get greater insight into local politics, and I came away with the impression that the local political parties, especially the city parties, are less about partisan ideology and more like civic social clubs. Both the Republicans and Democrats work very hard to try to help their candidates win, but not in the name of pushing a partisan agenda, but rather because they want to see their own club do well in the big game. At least that's my impression this time around.
