Mon Nov 24, 2008 at 10:42:15 AM EST
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Ah, the Asbury Park Press Editorial board. They never seem to disappoint and have managed to do it again with their editorial this week, Democrats' win not a mandate. For some background, lets see what they had to say leading into election day:This year, two seats now held by Republicans are up for grabs. If the Democrats capture just one of them, they will control the board for the first time in two decades. We believe voters would be better served by retaining the 3-2 Republican majority, re-electing Freeholder Director Lillian Burry, who, despite missteps, has done a creditable job during her first three-year term, and John Curley, a former Red Bank councilman who is seeking the seat being vacated by William C. Barham. Ok, so they warned the voters of the stakes and asked them to just forget the mistakes of the freeholder director because she didn't have any really big screw ups, especially when compared to the past corruption. We also need to note the change they said the Freeholder board needed and who they REALLY wanted to see make it:There is more work to be done on the freeholder board. It needs to conduct its meetings in the evenings, when more members of the public can attend. It needs to bid on professional services, particularly engineering and all types of insurance. And it needs to bring down legal costs. Having said that, the board has come a long way in the past two years. This year, it has worked well under Burry's direction and would work even better under the watchful eye of Curley. The APP made their position clear. Regardless of the positive change made on the board since electing two Democrats in 2006 or the fact they acknowledge themselves much more needs to be done, now was not the time to take that big leap to Democratic Control by electing Amy Mallet. Unfortunately for the Asbury Park Press, the voters rejected their judgment at the ballot box. Now in an effort to remain relevant, they are ready to apply the brakes to the choice the voters made before Amy Mallet even gets sworn in and the Democrats take control:The long-delayed election results that will give Democrats control of the Monmouth County freeholder board next year should not be interpreted as a clear mandate for change, as suggested this week by a spokesman for the county Democratic leadership. They say long delayed as if it's Amy Mallet's fault that it took two weeks for the votes to be counted and that should lessen the statement her victory made. And what prompted this latest outburst?County Democratic spokesman Mike Mangan warned the current Republican-controlled board not to help party loyalists "burrow in" to county jobs before Democrats assume 3-to-2 control in January by extending contracts, giving them new assignments protected by civil service or providing them with salary bumps. Good advice. But he added, "Voters have spoken and want Democrats in control." That's debatable. Hmm, I'd say that's better than good advice and it's not debatable at all that the voters ignored their pleas electing a Democrat for freeholder giving Democrats control of the board. The Asbury Park Press needs to accept that fact and move on to more important issues. The editorial continues by "analyzing the results":Republican Freeholder Director Lillian Burry received the most votes. Democrat Amy Mallet's margin of victory over Republican John Curley was one-fifth of 1 percent. That hardly suggests county residents were clamoring for change. Mallet's success was due to the coattails of Barack Obama, name recognition gained from her failed 2007 Assembly bid and repeated promises that Democrats would be more fiscally responsible than Republicans. Humility here clearly is in order. Since the Asbury Park Press wants to go all technical on us, let's go to the actual numbers. They act like Burry won by a huge margin, but she received 137,719 votes to Mallet's 136,652, a difference of 67 votes. In fact, Mallet defeated Curley by a larger margin of 328 votes, or nearly five times the separation of Burry. On those Obama coattails, Barack Obama lost Monmouth County 51%-47% and in addition, Frank Lautenberg lost 52%-46%. Now in fairness, Obama did perform 4 points better than Kerry in 2004 who lost Monmouth County to Bush 55% to 45%, but I wouldn't exactly categorize that as a landslide with epic coattails.At some point they might want to actually give Mallet some credit for winning. The editorial also talks about Mallet's past assembly run helping her gain name recognition while conveniently overlooking the name recognition gained by the two Republicans because they were incumbents. And while we're on gaining from previous coverage, I assume they will be calling out Chris Christie for the coverage he has gained in the past few years for his potential gubernatorial run. The bottom line is that Democrats should make the change they were elected to provide. They should continue with the progress that the APP even acknowledges has already been made. The Asbury Park Press should give the Democrats a chance to take office before they try to dictate the agenda once again. The voters already saw through their hypocrisy and responded by electing a Democrat to change control on Election or the next step might be their subscribers realizing and taking their money elsewhere. |
| Jason Springer :: If not a mandate, Monmouth voters definitely sent a message |
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