There will be plenty of time in the upcoming days, weeks, and months to do the proper autopsy of what occurred today in the Longmont election. As I expected, this election was a continuation of the 2008 Special Election - people were engaged and not asleep at the wheel as they were in the 2007 election that brought us one of the worst city councils in a long, long time.
Turnout appears to be ridiculously low, but the margins of victory for each of the new (and in
Gabe Santos' case re-elected) councilmember was large, none of these weak pluralities that brought us the likes of some of the (now former)
Benker Bloc.
This was a particularly nasty campaign, much of it you may not even be aware of. I'm not talking about posts on this site, but things done behind the scenes that go beyond politics. It may help to explain why I was focused like a laser on those who I believed had to go. I'll go into some of it, and name names in some cases, and show the ugly underbelly of local politics.
Rest assured, the dirty and ugly aspect didn't come from
Wrongmont, or
WTP, or
Longmont Leadership Committee, or any of the candidates who won this election. If you have been reading this site closely, you probably already have a good idea of who and what I'm referring to. But you only know a fraction of the story.
It makes this victory all that much sweeter. If people want to play dirty and make it personal, and think they can win the day using these tactics: they're wrong. The voters today proved that if people think they can make up wholesale lies about their political opponents and expect to get away with it, they will lose.
In this game you make your arguments and accept the outcome, win or lose. The voters are the jury and there's little to no chance for appeals. I made a series of arguments, often quite strenuously - and I'm pleased with how the jury has decided. In nearly every race it wasn't even close enough for the losing parties or their supporters to even think about crying foul. The winners won fair and square, and the losers basically got stomped. How the latter reacts will be interesting to watch.
...much more to come.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
©2009 Chris Rodriguez/Longmont Advocate LLC (Chris Rodriguez is a Longmont resident, and the publisher and broadcaster of Longmont Advocate, a community website and podcast that raises local issues to increase public awareness and interest)