Absent a futile effort among the lawyer class to give credence to malicious rumors about one of the Republican candidates, very little of the traditional mixture of using their media friends and their social network to spread lies and half truths was witnessed during the entire election season.
I truly believe one of the reasons for the races being different this time was because some of the candidates, as in past years, would have none of that kind of dirty campaigning. It is a difficult thing to be an incumbent and to have a record that is fair game for anyone that opposes your re-election. But there are always some who run a clean race.
And those Democrats have always been rewarded – until this year. In the past, Democrats in local races have benefited from straight ticket Democratic voting. In fact, in the last fifteen years if the straight ticket voting had been flip flopped, like it was in our local as this year, there would not be one single Democratic officeholder in Liberty County.
There is no coincidence that this year several in the media decided it was a priority to educate voters about straight ticket voting. Noticed as a first was their efforts in this year of all years to make sure local people understood that IF a voter voted straight ticket they could still pick a candidate or two and vote in the other party.
But that was mild and subtle and perhaps unnoticed by many. What should have raised the eyebrows all was the local media’s new found objections to straight ticket voting. Never have they had so much enthusiasm and so many words to express their opposition to “pulling the lever” as some call it. That is not to say they have never given lip service to opposing this practice before, but until it was obvious the Obama factor was going to flip flop the results, they have not preached with near the zeal.
Looking back at this election there seems to me to be two new phenomena that should have made us all approach the election with a fatalistic viewpoint. Local Democrats were doomed from the get-go. First, the excuse we have all heard ad nauseum, Obama is to blame. Hardly a revelation, it finally caught up to local Democrats. When Obama started talking openly about long held goals of the liberals in the Democrat party, Texans ran to the polls to vote against him and his party.
Second, the local media and incumbent politicians knew whatever they said, it would not go unchallenged. In the past, the Democrats have had an unusual advantage. The media would help Democrats’ re-election bid by protecting, or even defending, any reporting of officeholders’ negatives. Not only did they prevent exposing them from defending their record, they helped research and “get the word out” on Republican challengers. This election that tradition ended. Going into the 2010 election season it was obvious Liberty Dispatch was more than willing to, not only talk about incumbents’ records, but to ensure Republicans that the local media would not get the last word.
Those two things made this a very different campaign season. It made it possible to clean up years of the good ole boy system. And a free to speak vigilante press is the only hope of not starting another good ole boy system- with Republicans in the drivers’ seat. If the local media does its job this can’t happen. If they don’t, I have a feeling Liberty Dispatch will.
