2010 Mid-Terms from a local view
We’re a large country, and all politics are local. The media, be it the Old Guard or the local radio news or the bloggers, are much more national thanks to search engines and more people searching for news on the internet instead of on their local news shows.
So here’s a proposal for an experiment: I’d like to understand these races and the results from the point of view of the voters who are there, who have skin in the game and have to make the decision, rather than from talking heads and professional reporters. I’d also like this to be here, where it does not interrupt Lex’s main blog, and where it doesn’t matter if it takes a few hours or days to moderate.
What I think would be a useful format is to start each reply post with your state, followed by city or district in the House. For example, mine will start “SD – At Large” since I have only one Representative. Somebody from Iowa might start it “IA – District 1″ and so on. Reply under those state headings, so one can quickly scroll down to IA or SD and find the details from the locals.
This promises to be a historic election across the nation. It will be interesting in two years time to return to this page and compare and contrast.
Lex? This is your house. What do you think?
– Max
Posted by MaxDamage
On November 1st, 2010 under Unfiled.
Comments: 2
Comments
Comment from MaxDamage
Time: November 2, 2010, 11:58 pm
SD – At Large
I guess I’ll start here with the results, Kristi Noem (R) defeated Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a 3-term Blue Dog Democrat who has defended her seat easily in the past. Noem is a four-year state legislator who had little state-wide exposure, while Sandlin comes from the Herseth family that has a long record in state government and is practically a household name.
During the start of the campaign the issues were discussed, meetings were held, etc… A flood of out-of-state advertising hit the airwaves later, mainly television in the larger cities but a significant amount of radio was used to cover the more rural parts, and for the first time I saw a lot of ads on internet sites like Drudge Report. If I hit Drudge from Sioux Falls, a Noem ad was featured. Hitting it from my office in Minnesota a different candidate was featured. All politics may be local, but there’s a lot of national media involvement.
That is, I think, what was the deciding factor in this election. In the local races Democrats and Republicans were about even, mostly trading on name recognition. A neighbor of mine whom I know well ran for County Commissioner with with a budget of $19 for postcards and dropped them off personally on his way to or from errands. That he was a Democrat or Republican meant nothing, that race was name recognition and reputation.
Likewise, the gubernatorial race was congenial, the ads were positive and made some concrete claims as well as general platitudes, the same was true of state representative contests. When I went to vote I was scratching my head over some of the names on the ballot – in spite of listening to local radio and television several of them were strangers to me.
But then the attack ads came. Herseth was painted as a part of the Pelosi machine and that Washington really changed her. Herseth supporters fired back with a tale of speeding tickets and failure to appear as making Noem think she is above the law. These ads came from out-of-state, initially. Herseth was forced to defend this line of reasoning, pulling herself into the muck. Noem dismissed them as desperation tactics.
In the end, I think the ads backfired. They were so lacking in real content, so generic, they were an embarrassment to watch or listen to, like a eulogy delivered by a priest who had never met the deceased. Claiming that Noem is above the law because of a speeding ticket not properly filed and paid doesn’t work in a state with a 75mph speed limit where, if you do that, you’ll be passed by people watching DVD’s and reading the newspaper. The more vapid the ad, the more people talked of voting for that candidate to make up for the insult from outside.
The politics were local in this race. Had they stayed local there might yet be a Blue Dog Democrat in the House. Even in an insignificant race in an insignificant state, though, the candidate was judged not on their qualifications but on their company.
To my mind, this was more about Washington than South Dakota.
– Max
Comment from Quartermaster
Time: November 27, 2010, 6:04 pm
My local congresscritter survived. A Blue Dog Dimocrat named Heath Shuler. About the only reason he survived was he voted against the Obamacare abomination. The Haywood County (where I live) commissioners survived, but the neighboring County, Jackson County saw full turn over in the commission.
I think you are right about this election being about the District of Corruption. Nazi Pelosi and Dingy Harry Reid pretty much put paid to the Dimocrat reign of confusion. Those Dims that didn’t vote with Pelosi and Reid seemed to do OK. There weren’t many of them, though, and frankly they richly deserved their downfall.
Jerry Pournelle labeled the Dims the “Nuts,” and Pubbies the “Creeps.” Hopefully, there are enough new faces among the Pubbies to keep the Creeps under control. The Nuts will be Nuts regardless. To describe them as insane is not unreasonable.
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