Endorsement results, for what they're worth
In the midst of planning our election coverage for November, I took a moment to compare our endorsements to the actual outcome in Guilford County.
By my count, we went 12-4.
Here is a list of our endorsements (we did not endorse for every office on the ballot in the primary although we will in November):
Our pick: Richard Moore, Democrat, governor.
Outcome: Bev Perdue
Our pick: Pat McCrory. governor, Republican
Outcome: Pat McCrory
Our pick: Kay Hagan, Democrat U.S. Senate
Outcome: Kay Hagan
Our pick: Elizabeth Dole, Republican, U.S, Senate
Outcome: Elizabeth Dole
Our pick: Brad Miller, Congress,13th District Democrat
Outcome: Brad Miller
Our pick: Teresa Bratton, Congress, 6th District
Outcome: Teresa Bratton
Our pick: Laura Wiley, Republican, N.C. House, District 61
Outcome: Laura Wiley
Our pick: Katie Dorsett, Democrat, N.C. Senate, District 28
Outcome: Katie Dorsett
Our pick: Rick Wallace, Republican, County Commissioner, District 5
Outcome: Billy Yow
Our pick: Greg Woodard. Democrat, County Commissioner, District 8
Outcome: Skip Alston
Our pick: Quarter-cent sales tax increase: Yes
Outcome: No
Our pick: School bonds: Yes
Outcome: Yes
Our pick: Eastern Guilford bonds: Yes
Outcome: Yes
Our pick: GTCC bonds: Yes
Outcome: Yes
Our pick: County Jail bonds: Yes
Outcome: Yes
Our pick: Parks & Recreation Bonds: No
Outcome: No
What does that mean? Not a whole lot.
Endorsing candidates is not like picking NCAA brackets.
We're not in it necessarily to choose winners. We're simply sharing our collective opinion as an editorial board on who the best candidate is.
In some cases, we're pretty sure we were going with very, very long shots. We knew, for instance. that Billy Yow very likely would win over Rick Wallace for commissioner, as would Skip Alston over Greg Woodard, who had been bed-ridden with pneumonia during the campaign but probably would have lost even if he had been fully healthy.
But we wanted to send a message to Alston and Yow that they both really needed to clean up their acts.
I don't know if they're going to listen.
Again, all this doesn't mean much, except it follows a pattern, for what its worth, that we generally fall in line wth how the populace voted, this election and most others.
That would at least suggest that we're not "out of touch," as some of you have alleged.
But, hey, I could be wrong.
Comments (2)
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It seems that people had very little interest in running for office. Even offices that had choices, they were often very weak candidates. Especially distressing was the Board of Education. Getting a free ride in is not good for the candidate or good for Guilford County. We have a lot of problems in Guilford County and there seems to be few people who want to try to solve them.
Posted on June 5, 2008 12:02 PM
Joe,
I didn't see your name on the ballot :).
Posted on June 5, 2008 6:58 PM