The Aftermath

To say that I got crushed in yesterday’s election would be an understatement. To say that I am vastly disappointed would also be an understatement. To say that I am surprised I lost would be a lie. I did not expect that an independent candidate in the Town of Enfield would ever get a fair shake and I was not disappointed.

First of all, let me say that Joe Bosco deserved to get re-elected. He has represented his district well, stayed true to his promises to not increase taxes, and is the owner of a successful business. I could do a lot worse than to get beaten by Joe Bosco.

That said, I honestly felt that the time was right for an independent to make a decent run for elective office. A lot of people across the country are tired of politics as usual and I really believed that even though I did not expect to win, I thought I would make a decent showing. Wow, was I wrong.

I believe that the Democrats may have made a mistake in not endorsing my candidacy. If they had, given my number of votes along with Tom Barry’s, that would have made it a closer race. Not that all of Tom’s voters would have come my way, but it would have made the race competitive. But that is, as they say water over the dam.

To me, this election had a lot of surprises. I was SHOCKED that the Democrats did not get control of the school board. I spoke to many parents who were upset about the last two school budgets, and I thought that given the amount of mobilization they undertook last spring with the proposed school closings, I honestly felt that the parents would swing the board back to the Democrats. Not only was I wrong, the Republicans across the board pretty much got more votes than the Democrats. I guess it goes to show that those whose priority is low taxes turned out in more numbers than parents did.

I was also surprised that the Republican’s four at-large candidates won. This isn’t a knock on the Republican candidates by any means, but rather I thought that across the board, the “weakest” Democrat candidate was stronger than the Republican’s “weakest” candidate. You can say a lot about politics in Enfield, but you can never say that it isn’t interesting.

So, this is my last post on this blog. I didn’t update it as much as I wanted to, but I think it’s an interesting look back on my run for council. I will be starting another blog, this one an electronic online newspaper about all things Enfield. I am hoping to collaborate with former Enfield Press editor Tim Jensen to try to make this a viable, electronic news source for Enfield residents. Stay tuned!