Archive: Opinions

Now that elections are done, the Opinons Page feels downright lonely.  For weeks we've had many, many impassioned letters, most in support of or opposition to candidates for town and county offices.  Last week alone we had ten letters.  Now that the election is done everyone is taking a rest.  So it is up to me to ramble a bit.

The Opinons Page showed that Democrats in Lansing are most likely to write letters, but Tuesday's vote showed that at least this year local Republicans were more likely to vote.  While Republicans won the two Town Board positions and the County Legislator position the vote spread wasn't huge.  That means that while the majority wanted a change of direction in the town, there is no overwhelming mandate.

Over the years it has seemed to me that local Democrats have been more adept at publicizing their candidates and events.  I was stunned, year after year, at how I always knew about upcoming Democratic events, but only found out about the Republican ones after the fact.  On a few occasions in years past I even chided local Republican leaders for not alerting the press when they had something going.

This year all that changed.  Republicans were agressive about scheduling and publicizing events around town, in the newspaper (by which I mean the Lansing Star), and on Facebook.  They seemed a lot more organized this year, and while the Democrats were not slacking in the PR department, this new determination by Lansing Republicans paid off in the voting booths.  It seemed to me that Connie Wilcox aligning herself with Lansing Republicans helped them a lot in this area.  She was passionate about getting the word out that there was a barbecue, or a meet and greet, or a dinner... all the things that it appeared the Republicans treated as state secrets in past years.  So for the first time in a long time Lansing Republicans got their message out.  And evidently enough voters liked it, because they won all three local positions.

This is when I usually say something like the reason I like election season is that we get to see what people want our future to be.  And that is true.  But the top reason I really love election season is that I am guaranteed something to put in the Star for a whole month.  It takes some of the week-to-week pressure off me.  Yeah, it's all about me!

But that's just PED talking (Post Election Depression).  I'll get over it.  Meanwhile, there is a lot going on in Lansing right now, and the influx of Republicans into our local government is only a part of it.  Stay tuned!

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