Whoa. That was intense. Thanks to Trevor for some great posts from GOP-ville and some after-after-hours analysis. A few thoughts:
Council District 4
There really is not much to say about the Klein/Sigaty results other than "Are we done?" As Trevor wrote last night, this is the third generation of the redevelopment opponents attempting to put a referendum (of sorts) on CB 58 and 59. Now that all is said and done, the opponents will have to face the facts on one of two truths:
1) People want this development to go forward; OR
2) Your group can not communicate its message effectively.
I think it is more the latter, and that Mary Kay won at least half of her votes off name recognition, but there were plenty of votes yesterday that were in affirmation of the hard work Council member Sigaty put into these bills. If you can't acknowledge that, then you aren't being reasonable.
Delegate District 12B
There may be a little second guessing in the Bailey camp about whether he would have had more success against incumbent Liz Bobo from the Republican side of the ticket. Your average Dem, no matter their support for Sigaty, was willing to overlook Liz's meddling and stick with a known commodity. From my perspective, I think the party switch in itself may have doomed this campaign. Either way, John is a smart guy and I hope he stays in politics. (Also, Luke -- it is Red Sox, not Socks...John Bailey felt like "the Red Sox" going into Yankee Stadium)
This race isn't done. Please spend some time on this sleepy morning over at Bob Wheatley's corner of cyberspace.
Delegate District 13
Looks like the Republican ticket will be:
Ed Priola (32.5%)
Jeff Robinson (25.7%)
Loretta Gaffney (23.1%)
Trevor proposed to Ed Priola that the Republicans run as a slate for the General Election, and it looks like Ed was open to it. Thankfully, these candidates never went after each other in the primary, so there are no fences to mend. The only thing to consider is that they are all still running against one another, especially if voters treat November's ballot like a Make-Your-Own Sundae and take "a little of this and a little of that." I would be interested to see research on how candidate slates help or hurt the candidates. As we will see in the Central Committee race, it doesn't always work.
Board of Education
The eight names you will see on the final ballot will be:
Sandra French (16.16%)
Frank Aquino (16.07%)
Larry Walker (9.78%)
Brian Meshkin (9.02%)
David Proudfoot (8.98%)
Cindy Vailancourt (8.71%)
Robert Ballinger (8.20%)
Leslie Kornreich (7.41%)
Surprise surprise, the incumbents with a top ranked school system get overwhelming support. I was happy to see David Proudfoot's results so close to Brian Meshkin's, and imagine that this fourth spot may come down to these two candidates. That analysis will have to wait for another day. Congrats to all who may the cut.
GOP Central Committee
With 97% of precincts reporting, it looks like your Republican Central Committee will be (in order of percentage, top being the most):
Laura Kittleman
David Lee Bates
Diane Butler
David Myers
David Wissing
Loretta Shields
Kathleen Newberry
Janet Cornick
Karen Winterling (4,836 votes -- Betty Evans next closest at 4,383 with 2.6% of the vote left to come in)
The slate of Winterling/Chickanis/Rosenberg/Newberry was split. I will be interested to see how this group works together. I am disappointed and surprised that Chris Oxenham did not make the cut, but that may be because business-minded Republicans switched their party affiliation a long time ago. However, this is a good group that can do a lot of good things. Republicans in this County should be confident that progress is on the way.
