Thursday, November 10, 2005

Rick Stewart's comments on the election

Rick Stewart, editor of "The Selma News" made a keen observation about the election. I said the same thing on Tuesday. I am going to quote part of his commentary from the web site, which I assume will also be in today's paper. To see the full commentary, just click on the post title, which will be a link to the web page. Rick, I am trying to send as much traffic to your web site as I can, now that "The Selma News" has a web site up and running.

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I congratulate Selma's mayor-elect Charles Hester today. In addition, congratulations to incumbents Jackie Lacy and Debbie Johnson, both of whom retained their seats on Selma Town Council.

All worked hard to earn their seats.

In every race, there has to be someone who does not win. In this case it was incumbent Mayor Harry Blackley. I'd also like to congratulation Harry on his efforts as well as those of Council challengers Troy LaPlante and Tommy Holmes.

It takes guts to put your name on the ballot. And, it hurts when you don't win. I've covered elections for more than 30 years--I know.

While it does hurt, there is no shame in losing. Harry, Troy and Tommy showed courage to campaign and run on issues they felt important. My hat is off to them for having the courage to run.

Voters did send a mixed message. Charles said Tuesday night that he went door-to-door over the past few weeks in Selma. He said voters told him repeatedly they wanted a change in Selma. They told him they wanted new leadership.

While voters made a change at the top, they retained the two incumbent Council members.

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Yup..."we want change, but are not willing to change to get it," said the majority of the voters.

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