Here are a few thoughts regarding the 06 elections season.
It went pretty much as we had thought from the beginning. Al and Ralph have prevailed in what turned out to be a very vigorous selectmen's race. One measure of activity is campaign spending and I bet if a little research is done this might prove to be the most expensive campaign in Burlington's history in terms of total dollars spent.
Old methods and new were utilized through out the campaign. Technology continued to make its mark as for the first time the automated calls were made a staple of the strategy. Of course the email system again was vital to inter campaign communications. Ads, speeches, and mailing ideas all passed hands and were constructed and edited without anyone leaving home.
The impact of email can be further demonstrated in some of the town meeting races. The email that contained the excel spreadsheet on the voting records of each town meeting members during the past 5 roll call votes I think was a major factor in the defeat of a number of long time members.
Mailings, dear friends cards and endorsements all proved to be part of the core strategy and were used to effect. The sign wars again worked in our favor as we had superior visibility in lawn signs as well as at the corner since we simply wore down the competition. We had a presence of size every day since March 17th almost without exception.
As it turns out our concerns about incumbency and taxes were quite well founded. The anti incumbency can be seen to a degree in two cases as Sotiros was defeated and the yes questioned just barely won.
It can also be seen in that Al did not receive a majority of the 5593 votes cast. The dilution of the field turned out to be a deciding factor. Had Mooney not been in the race, a good portion of those votes might have gone to Zenkin and Patuto. The same can be said if any one of the other three (Patuto, Zenkin or Keene had not entered). Even Arsenault may have been a spoiler, had his votes gone Zenkin's way he might have defeated Patuto.
The turnout was quite interesting to watch. As I stood inside the foyer all day I was able to see the ebb and flow of the numbers as well as examine the make up of the demographics.
A couple of things stand out in my mind. I can't recall seeing the number of baby carriages at the polls as I did this year. Additionally it was almost comical to be inside the foyer and see the number of people who had no clue where they were going. "Hey buddy where are you going"? the reply was "do I vote here"?
This was further born out by the number of times I witnessed the precinct workers explaining how to use the ballot. The town clerk, Jane Chew also confirmed this to me by virtue of the fact that she had a great many ballots that were spoiled. A spoiled ballot can be caught by the voter before recording or it is recorded by the machines and the vote doesn't count because the person might have voted for three Selectmen or some other mistake. This might be a factor in the town meeting races if recounts are requested.
One thing that has been bugging me since the beginning of the sign holding has been the safety aspect. On a couple of occasions up at our regular place I witnessed little children holding signs, in addition I saw children on roller blades on the sidewalks during peak traffic hours. Quite frankly this scares the hell out of me.
As dangerous as that is it pales in comparison to the sign holding on the island in front of Dunkin Donuts. I have enclosed a letter I sent today to Chief Hart on the subject and will leave it at then end for your review.
In any event it was a hard fought and well deserved victory. We had the best prepared candidate as well as a well executed strategy. Based on current events we needed it in order for our guy not to be "Woburnized." This is of course is a reference to the then incumbent mayor of Woburn who had been defeated earlier this year in a stunning upset. The major issue of course turned out to be taxes.
