Deprecated: mb_convert_encoding(): Handling HTML entities via mbstring is deprecated; use htmlspecialchars, htmlentities, or mb_encode_numericentity/mb_decode_numericentity instead in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/super-cool-ad-inserter/inc/scaip-shortcode-inserter.php on line 37
Well, look on the bright side. At least the anti-Ravenstahl crowd doesn’t have to engage in a cycle of finger-pointing about what would have happened if either Kevin Acklin or Dok Harris dropped out of the race. With 55 percent of the vote, Ravenstahl beat their vote tallies when combined.
Acklin and Harris DID divvy up the vote in Wards 7 and 14, allowing Ravenstahl to eke out a win in the East End progressive enclaves of Shadyside and Squirrel Hill. So yes, Acklin and Harris did divvy up the reformer vote as expected. But also as expected, it didn’t really matter, because there just weren’t enough reformer votes to make a difference.
But in the best lefty tradition, we should by all means engage in a cycle of mutual recrimination anyway.
Do I sound a bit cynical? Let’s be clear: This was a bad night for progressives all around. Yes, Harris and Acklin combined to keep Ravenstahl under 60 percent — Harris took 25 percent of the votes and Acklin took 20, more or less — but so what? Republican Joan Orie-Melvin has appparently won the state Supreme Court race, and GOP candidates are doing well in other statewide judicial races as well. Plus which the GOP seems to have won gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. Brace yourself for weeks of crowing over on FOX about how this is a referendum on the Obama administration.
No brilliant insights here, sorry.
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2009.
As far as 20 + 25 totaling just 45, I’ll only add that a one-on-one race would likely have significantly altered the narrative and probably better engaged the media. I cringe to point that out because it’ll only encourage the finger-pointing, but it’s probably true. Then again neither challenger could have been assured of picking up ALL the votes of the other, so it still wouldn’t have been a nail biter … but it might have been a more encouraging improvement upon the DeSantis experience, or perhaps it could have lasted until 10:00 and a couple of PCNC updates, which would have been novel.
For starters, I think the equation “more engaged media = more engaged voters” is one that deserves A LOT more examination than it seems to be getting. Maybe I’ll do it myself, but I’ve already written one ridiculously long-winded post this week. There are bandwidth considerations to factor in here.
For seconders: About the ONLY serious media jolt produced in this entire campaign was produced by Acklin and his Verbanac e-mails. Those probably helped Harris, if anyone, because Acklin bloodied Luke up while leaving Harris’ hands clean. (And Harris played the role of “above the fray” politician to the hilt.) If we’re going to engage in speculation about what might have been, it’s worth wondering whether Harris, on his own, would ever have turned up the e-mails or anything else. That’s an important question for anyone who thinks a winning strategy required aggressively going after Ravenstahl.
(I’m not trying to back YOU up here, btw — it’s just that this argument is making the rounds a lot. I get the sense you don’t have much more enthusiasm for it than I do.)