Published: May 10, 2008 10:54 pm            

DODD: Young proves him wrong and other election lamenting

“Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, nobody knows but me!” Sorry, I was just singing one of my favorite old spirituals while lamenting as I checked over my pre-election prognostications. Here is my recap and a few editorial comments thrown in as an extra, added bonus!

Clark County Commissioner District 2: This one is first as I personally promised Les Young it would be the top news if he won. This was my biggest misstep on odds as I listed Les as a 35-1 underdog and he won the race. Ironically, I knew nothing about him until I met and talked to him at the Meet the Candidates forum sponsored by Farm Bureau. I told him that night he had won my vote.

Clark County Council-at-large: I will claim some victory here as the top three vote-getters actually won the seats. I did assign the lowest odds to the three candidates that won. OK, Kevin Vissing, I originally listed you at 15-1, which made you my 3rd choice in odds, and you ended up with the highest number of raw votes — merely nit-picking at my successful political fortune telling.

School Board, District 6: I listed Jerry White at 2-1 and Robbie Valentine at 5-1. Robbie did get the razor-thin victory, overcoming a brutal and often very personal attack campaign in public forums on newsandtribune.com, in what most people saw as a highly competitive race. I really think the Jeffersonville High School/Tony Branch issue helped White with a certain voting clique, but hurt Jerry a bit overall. Robbie was vulnerable but in retrospect what I knew might have been the difference probably proved to be. My theory is that at least half of all voters who will pull a lever in any political race personally know nothing about any of the candidates, so sometimes name recognition can be the real difference.

Judge of Clark Superior Court 2: Judge Jerry Jacobi won convincingly (despite a past scandal regarding a member of his staff) in this one and I had him as the second choice at 5-1. Jerry also had to survive what I thought was a very tacky forum campaign on Newsandtribune.com that really stooped to the lowest common denominator. I suspect winning factors included name recognition and the multi-million dollar mailing campaign! Were I an ardent supporter I could probably wallpaper a small room in my house with Jacobi mailings.

Greater Clark Schools - District 5: Bill Halter can now spend more time in Florida and my third choice, Christina Gilkey (at 15-1) scored an upset victory. I actually liked everything about her except that she was Culpepper Cooper’s niece. I would urge her to avoid any appearance of personal conflict of interest and abstain from voting on any school insurance related issues. I liked many of her proposals and ideas, and felt she has a passion for the welfare of the students.

Clark County Commissioner - District 1: No surprise here as my 2-1 favorite, Ed Meyer retained his seat. Sources tell me that Larry Wilder and Cooper switched support from McEwen to Meyer late in the race which could explain his last place finish (how about it Pepper and Larry?) Hedrick ran a strong race for a first time candidate with no backing from the political machinery.

Greater Clark School Board - 7: My favorite winner of the night was my 5-1 second choice. If you want to have some fun watch the earthy, folksy, Becka Christensen interact with the suits on the board the next couple of years. You were far and away the people’s choice with the largest margin of victory in any race against Charles Neal which blows Wilder’s theory that writing for a newspaper giving a candidate an unfair edge. (I was told Larry was bragging around town as to how he orchestrated the successful covert campaign to get me out of the school board race in Charlestown by making my column an issue.)

Greater Clark School Board - District 2: I am rarely left without words to write but this one left me blank.

I will not try to beat a dead horse. I will simply have to congratulate “Teflon” Ernie Gilbert on his win as obviously none of is misdeeds or missteps stuck as far as the voters were concerned as they overwhelmingly returned him to office. I will ask him to please try to represent Charlestown a little bit this time around. Jeff has plenty of representation. He might start with looking into why the Charlestown band program has had seven or eight directors during the last 10 years and the possibility that there might not be a marching band program next year. If this was the football or basketball coach position, the town would be in an uproar.

Presidential Election: It’s time for Hillary to place her party loyalty over her own ego and stop the Democratic Party’s bleeding. She can’t possibly mathematically win. The Clintons are important to the party but they are not the party. It will soon begin to look petty and pathetic. Either she wants to destroy Obama’s (and the Democratic Party’s) chances in the fall so she can try to win in 2012 or she is blinded to the truth. Ultimately, I suspect she will join forces with Barack and try to become America’s first female vice president!

I will leave you with one final thought as a warning to be vigilant over the actions of all newly elected office holders. A well known political player once famously boasted around town, “The best thing about Clark County politicians is that you can buy them for as little as a hundred dollar bill, but you have to keep buying them!”

Lindon Dodd is an Otisco resident who is a freelance writer, 4-H School Enrichment Program Assistant and Realtor who can be reached at lindon.dodd@hotmail.com.

        

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