Blue Bexley

A few months ago, when I got started doing Blue Bexley, I believed that Dems were focusing too narrowly on certain races, that the area I lived in was too liberal to be represented by Republicans at all levels above City Council, and that even if we were looking at popular incumbents generally perceived as moderates, that making these races close would spread out the Republican defense.

Well, Bev Campbell ran a very close race, one that still has not been officially called by the Dispatch, but even on this blog she's done more to win this race than I did.

After I posted that Bob Shamansky was within the margin of error on the only independent poll, it appears that he has been defeated by a spread well outside of the margin of error on that poll.

Emily Kreider finished in between these two candidates, with approximately 45% of the vote. Most disappointing to me is that David Goodman (admittedly with a hometown advantage) ran stronger than any other Republican here in Bexley.

So even though Democrats have decisively taken the U.S. House (with the help of Ohio Dem Zachary Space), might have taken the U.S. Senate (with the help of Ohio's Sherrod Brown), taken the Governorship, Attorney General, Secretary of State, and Treasurer races here in Ohio, and overwhelmingly passed an increase in the minimum wage...

And even though the Republican Party had to sink a million dollars into protecting an incumbent State Senator, an incumbent U.S. Representative had to hoard his considerable war chest and run a campaign that will permanently stain his reputation...

Even though I saw my writing and ideas have a small but noticeable effect on both the old and new media coverage of these races, as well as the campaigns themselves...

Even though I achieved all of the modest goals I laid out in late August...

Blue Bexley is still feeling like a big loser this morning.

I honestly believed that the candidates I wrote about not only deserved to win, but had come to have a legitimate chance at doing so, and I'm quite disappointed by the results. In all honesty, if there had been victories, I would have allowed myself to privately take a little credit, despite the fact that many many people put much more of themselves into the campaigns. In that spirit, however, I feel that I bear some of the blame.

So, Blue Bexley means something else this week. If you would like to bask in the glow of a resounding Dem Election night, this won't be the place. If you do visit, expect some autopsies and data runs (I'm a data geek by trade) for the next week or two. Then we start on 2008.