Well, it’s been a fun campaign, hasn’t it? I’m not going to miss all those commercials taking up airtime on the radio and TV though.
I went out to my polling place after work and was told that they had been “busy”; however, having worked the polling place in 2006 for a local candidate it seemed pretty dead for what would be a peak time after work. I only waited about a minute and that was probably because I was looking down at my cheat sheet for my delegate and alternate picks and didn’t see the nice lady waving me over.
And other than a handful of Andy Harris and Wayne Gilchrest signs (more Wayne ones at this location) you may not have known it was a polling place driving by. No one was out in the drizzle soliciting votes in the parking lot. It seems like the campaigns sort of hunkered down closer to their home bases in order to be around when the counting begins in a few minutes.
I have to say that I enjoyed getting to meet and speak with all but one Congressional candidate on both sides – the only one I missed was Democrat Joseph Werner. That may have been my favorite moment of the whole nine months I followed this, being outed at the end of a Democrat forum at Salisbury University. In the process I did get some kind words about my website and that made me feel pretty good. Yes, I have an editorial bias but I try to state what’s said at these events fairly and, not that I’m trying to blow my own horn, I have to say that there were a lot of events which would’ve gotten much less thorough coverage had I not been there. The fun part about this blog is not having to have things done by a deadline except that of my own choosing.
I truly wish we’d gotten a little more love on the Shore from the national candidates though. I remember back in 2000 then-candidate George W. Bush made an appearance at our local airport and thousands came out to see him. There was a line for security about a half-mile long and it was one time I was glad I could pull rank a little bit because that was the year I was President of our Young Republican club. I got pretty close to the stage and was right by the limo pulling away. Didn’t get to shake his hand though.
Finally, I do have something to say about my predictions. Obviously there’s other opinions out there as to how the races will go and that’s great. I was happy to promote discussion. But one thing that needs to be remembered is that bloggers like me (or Bill Duvall, Joe Albero, G.A. Harrison, or my Red Maryland brethren – when do we get a sisteren?) represent people who are more into this than 90% of the general public at large. And if you combine the readership of all these outlets, you’re still likely not reaching more than 10% of the nearly 19,000 registered Republicans in Wicomico County alone in any given week.
However, there are other news outlets that do reach more of these people and I had to consider this as a factor. People you see in the news more often with favorable coverage tend to do better at election time. I’ve seen it enough over the years where people go with the names they recognize and shy away from challengers due to fear of the unknown. That’s why it’s tough to beat an incumbent, even if he or she doesn’t necessarily vote in a way that’s best for their district. Name recognition goes a long, long way.
But tomorrow the votes will almost all be counted (except for a few absentee and provisional ones) and life will go on for everyone. Seven people in our Congressional race will be disappointed, and two start plotting their strategy for November. The Presidential bandwagon will head for other parts of the country.
As for me I’m going to start looking at what’s going on in state politics once I do the obligitory primary postmortem post on how I fared with my predictions and how much of a serving of crow I’ll choke down. I saw a story last week that will probably lead things for state political issues on Friday, since I already know my Thursday post will be anything but political. But our folks in Annapolis are overdue for a hard look at what they’re doing so I’m going to give it to them.
