Election Day Post Mortem: Pop Song edition part one!

If we learned anything from Tuesday's turnout, it's that Lehigh Valley voters were not all that enthused about the election. 

There were many themes for yesterday's primary, but the biggest was Blame it on the rain.Turnout was abysmal, with it overall not reaching 30,000 out of the 190,000 registered R's and D's. As of right now for Lehigh County, the preliminary results look like approximately 13,500 of the 112,000 Democrats voted (12%) and 15,500 of the 78,000 registered Republicans (20%) came out.

As in every election, turnout was crucial. Who did the lack of interest hurt?

Just Walk Away Renee. Assistant District Attorney Renee Smith relied heavily on her boss's influence and donors, spending thousands on mailers and TV ads for the open County Judge seat. She came in third in the Republican primary and dead last in the Democratic. Cumulatively she garnered only 4,213. I don't think it was a stinging rebuke to her boss, but more of a negative perception of her by Lehigh County voters. She always looked angry in her mailers, reminding me of the grumpy old neighbor lady who hated the kids in the neighborhood.  Don't take it personally Renee, you were running against a 5 term State rep, for god's sake, you could never compete against that.  consider it a learning experience. Just walk away, you will get your chance again in the near future.

Who let the dogs out ? Lehigh County Republican Party Chair Wayne Woodman did, and in November it will come back to bite him and his minions. Dean Browning really needed the moderates in his party to come out and support him. Instead, the Pit Bulls on the far right who lack all reason and react only on instinct grabbed hard onto the fresh meat the local Tea Party wolves in sheep's clothing baited them with. Too many rank and file Republican voters never had enough sense to check the bait for the drug that was lulling them into mindless obedience. And they call Democrats level pullers?

Political bait that works in primaries catering to a select but vocal minority won't go over so well in the the general. They won't have Dean Browning to run against, but they will be under their own fair share of scrutiny. Democrats won't be buying whatWayne Woodman and Commissioner Candidate Scott Ott are selling. Bob Barker would agree, in November the Tea Party guard dogs/pit bulls will get spayed by the overall electorate.

Another Brick In the Wall- "we don't need no education." All voters lost yesterday in the school board races. I had a hard time finding any candidate anywhere who had any idea what they were getting into running for school board. School districts are really multi-million dollar companies. It's nice that regular folks can have a say in how the finances are managed, but you ever notice how many of them don't really have a clue?

 I intentionally left my ballot for Parkland School board blank, because not one candidate deserved my vote. I would have wrote someone in, but I couldn't think of anyone I would dislike that much to ask them to do that thankless job. We really need to consolidate School districts, but until the legislature gets a spine, we will have to endure all the incompetence and regular property tax hikes.

Coming up next: Pop song edition Part Two: Who did the lack of voter interest help?