Gainesville City Commission Election Results Typical

In the Gainesville at-large city commission election held yesterday, my concerns from yesterday's article were unnecessary. Although city commission races are technically non-partisan, the candidates are still usually either Republican or Democratic. Sometimes it's a little difficult to figure them out, but then again sometimes it isn't. The conservative Republican candidate, who deluged my mailbox with campaign ads and the city with campaign signs, nevertheless fell victim to the typical Gainesville formula in city-wide general elections: Democrats (liberal side) get 57-59 % while Republicans (conservative side) get 41-43 %. A couple of years ago, during the tea party craze, this formula was overturned when the Democrat/liberal squeaked out a very narrow victory over his teabagger opponent. In that campaign, the teabagger made a continual issue of his opponent's homosexuality, hoping (apparently successfully) to reap some "bigotry" votes for himself. But yesterday the pattern returned: the victor had about 56.5 % while the loser got 43.5 %.

Conservatives and Republicans do win sometimes in Gainesville. We once had a long-term sheriff who was a Republican (of course, he benefited from rural votes and outlying more conservative county communities). He seemed reasonable while at his sheriff's post, but when he won a state legislature seat he became an arch-conservative ideologue of the worst kind. So although I do like to have the conservative viewpoint heard in my local government, I am a bit reticent about supporting any candidate who appears to have ambitions for "higher" office, this recent commission race a case in point...