You wanted change?
Okay, Tuesday, you got change. Some good. Some bad.
But when it came to vital services, local voters for the most part were wise enough to stay the course.
Good Change:
- Mark Johns 129-vote win over Republican Richard Waugh in the Heath mayoral race. Mark surfaced in 2008 as a local grassroots leader for Obama and has not only stayed involved in local Democratic politics but taken on a tough race and won it. Kudos to Mark, his family and his campaign manager, Garry Goldsmith.
- Bryan Lenzo's election to the Pataskala City Council. Lenzo's prior experience on the city's planning and zoning commission should help the council deal with the suburb's financial problems, aggravated by voters' rejection (again) of a city income tax.
- Janine Shipley (Licking County School Board) and Merissa McKinstry (Pataskala council) were the top vote getters in their slates, a sign of the increasingly important role of women of both parties in Licking County politics.
- Despite hard times, county voters supported the $4.5 million senior citizens levy. Hopefully seniors, who in most cases are spared the worst of the recession because of Social Security and Medicare, will reciprocate by being equally supportive of school levies, youth recreation programs, help for the unemployed and health care reform.
Bad Change:
- Voter rejection of school issues for the career center (C-TEC) and the Lakewood, Licking Heights and North Fork districts. The North Fork loss is particularly painful since the income tax issue was a renewal and actually passed in Licking County, only to lose in Knox County.
- Statewide victories for Issues 1, 2 and 3, loading up the Ohio Constitution with mandates better left to the Legislature to handle by statute law. Particularly onerous was approval of Issue 3, the casino licenses, which lost in Licking County 54-46 percent. Happily, nobody's yet proposed a Casino-On-The-Square.
- While most library funding issues were approved across central Ohio, Pataskala voters turned down their $282,000 library operating levy. Nothing much can be expected from any community which doesn't support its schools or libraries.
Staying the Course:
- Township road and fire levies passed without exception, demonstrating that voters support those services which directly effect them. Who would be crazy enough to thumb their nose at the local fire and ambulance crews? (Although some of us suspect that potholes would be a better way to slow down traffic than camera surveillance of the kind just rejected by voters in Heath).
- Democrat Ed Houdeschell won his race to remain on Newark City Council and Democrat Doug Heffley won a spot on the Heath Council. Newark Council members unopposed for re-election were Bruce Bain, Shirley Stare and Carol Floyd.
- Thanks to Newark Council Candidates Julie Barrett and Bob Ziegler as well as Newark Treasurer Candidate Cary Rader for stepping up for the team, even if they didn't win. These local races, particularly in a red-leaning, Right-leaning county, require extraordinary commitment on the part of Democratic candidates.
Looking Ahead:
- Both Congressmen representing Licking County have cause for concern in 2010 based on Tuesday's national results. Rep. Zack Space, D-Dover, and Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Delaware County, are both incumbents and thus face the wrath of fed-up taxpayers in their re-election bids next year.
Tiberi is running in a swing district (the 12th) centered on Franklin County, which is trending increasingly Democratic. The question is whether his loyalty to the "Party of No" which has resulted in his consistent rejection of all planks in the Obama program, including health insurance reform, will play well or just smell with Independents a year from now.
Meanwhile, Space has the opposite problem of justifying his mostly pro-Obama voting record to Independents and independent-minded Republicans in the 18th District. Working in Space's favor is his impressive campaign war chest and the lack of a well-known challenger among the four Republicans announced so far. With a little bit of luck, the GOP hopefuls will engage in the same sort of intra-party blood-letting which led to the election of a liberal Democrat in a similarly conservative Republican congressional district in upstate New York on Tuesday.
--- David Lore
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