How low can we go?
Voter turnout was abysmal yesterday. It was only 22% in school board and the judge’s contest. But this election was not without its points of interest. If you compare the turnout in Republican primaries versus Democrat primaries, Republicans ran about a 30% turnout, while Democrats ran 24%. This is a bad omen for Democrats in November if they are less motivated than Republicans to show up.
As for as my prognosticating went, I didn’t do badly. I said it might be a Pinkoson blowout, but instead it was just a solid win over Jack Donovan, 53.7%-46.3%. I think the spread would have been bigger with a better turnout. I correctly called a Griffin/Nesbit runoff in the District 1 School Board race, a Gunnar Paulson first round knock out in District 3, and I thought Carol Oyenarte might do the same, but she will be in a November runoff with Jancie Vinson.
In other local contests, Corrine Brown devoured her primary challenger for the 3rd District seat in Congress by an 80-20 margin. She will be facing Republican primary winner Mike Yost and Independent candidate Terry Martin-Back. Yost took down Dean Black and Chris Nwasike in a 46-35-19 finish yesterday. In the 6th Congressional District Republican primary, Cliff Stearns easily won over Don Browning, 71-29.
In State House 11 Republican Primary, Elizabeth Porter blew out the rest of the 4 person field with 73% of the vote. And in State House 22, Keith Perry prevailed over Remzey Samarrai and John Deakins 44-28-28. Only 16 votes separated Samarrai from Deakins, who finished last.
Stay tuned as I revamp the site for November elections, including ballot initiatives!
I just wanted to say that even though Don Browning only got 29% against Cliff Stearns, I think this was a strong statement for Don Browning. This is nearly 1/3 of the vote against an 11 term incumbent who did not have any real campaign issues. I hope to see Browning continue to be involved in politics.
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