While the punditry yammers away with the meme of the day -- Republican wins mean a repudiation of President Obama -- those of us who live in the reality based world recognize that local elections are just that, local. Democrats who ran poor campaigns, and incumbent Democrats who lost touch with the electorate, lost. But the same held true for the Republicans (see New York's 23rd for a great example).
Here in Westchester County the incumbent County Executive, Andy Spano, lost to a Republican (a radio talk show host who had previously campaigned to abolish county government altogether). Yet the rest of the Democratic ticket -- County Clerk Tim Idoni and DA Janet DiFiore -- won. The race was not about party, it was about competence -- and taxes. Spano lost because he ran a campaign that relied on smears and attacks rather than owning up to the fact that Westchester taxes are among the highest in the nation. If he had admitted that, then proposed a meaningful plan to change it, he might have won, especially since Democrats outnumber Republicans among registered voters here. But instead he tried to deny reality -- a reality taxpayers know all too well.
In my view, part of the blame for this loss must go to the chairs of the Democratic party in New York. Last summer's drama in Albany was an obvious sign that the chairs are not doing their job in vetting candidates. The Westchester chair should have had an eye on the polling and convinced Spano to step down, then found a stronger candidate to run for County Exec.
The bottom line is that competence counts. Tim Idoni, who has done a great job of cleaning up the county clerk's office, and Janet DiFiore, who has been an effective DA, had no problem retaining their offices.