[EDIT] The Progressives won! Calloo, Callay! And it was not even close. Amy Erica Smith, Kelli Winfrey, Brett Becker got 20%, 19%, 17% of the vote. The right-wingers got 12%, 10%, 10%, and the fourth Progressive, Scott Dryer, got 7%.
Some details for posterity digging among climate-change induced rubble: There were no polls. It was amazing how people coalesced around 3 of the 4 to make the result 3:0. Also, strange — Scott Dryer had probably THE most stellar resume amongst all seven. I suspect that he started campaigning a bit late, and his ties to Ames are not as deep as the others’, then people went with who had the most lawn signs in lieu of polls, because we were all beside ourselves with worry. It’s a bit sad because he deserved more votes, but I can’t blame the voters — that was a savvy move under the circumstances.
One other tidbit: that difference of 12% to 10%, 10% in the right-wing slate? IMHO, that small difference is exactly the number of people who fell for Werstein’s ‘compassionate conservatism’ (anti-vaxx nonsense but with a concerned face). She was the only one of the three Republicans who could pull this off — definitely went fishing for these votes. [/EDIT]
I wrote this summer how right-wingers used BLM and Critical Race Theory as scapegoats to agitate against good public servants the School Board of Ames, Iowa. Since that did not scare enough people, they’ve added resentment against mask mandates and vaccine mandates to their portfolio. And they got our wonderful Superintendent Jenny Risner to resign.
Now it’s crunch time, right-wingers have run a well-organized, well-publicized, EXTREMELY well-funded campaign. Their signs are professionally done and impossible to overlook. Above all, they are running 3 candidates for 3 open seats (Purl, Duvick, Werstein) — which are the three names you see on these signs, TOGETHER. Genius? No, just common sense, if you ask me.
What does our side do? Four (4) candidates step forward. I know nothing negative about any of them, and the profiles in the local Ames Tribune make it perfectly clear who is on which side. Two (Amy Erica Smith, Kelli Winfrey) have had a head start and a lot more signs out there. The remaining two (Brett Becker, Scott Dryer) will probably battle it out for 3rd place in the progressive vote. Many lawns featuring Smith and Winfrey have either Becker or Dryer as 3rd sign (although they’re not coordinated enough to be on the same sign). Dryer has a ton of experience in his resume, Becker has nothing, but their statements and answers to questions are both very good (I am very grateful to the newspaper to ask these questions, they cut right to the chase).
Can you see the real problem here? Every voter gets 3 votes, presumably the righties will vote in lockstep for their ticket. Officially this is non-partisan, but they are not exactly hiding what they stand for.
And voters on our side will hem and haw, “research the issues”, hopefully be informed enough to know who is who — but they have to decide between 4 candidates for 3 seats! To me, it is maddening, it is electoral malpractice — why, why, why could these four not get together in some “smoke-filled backroom” like it used to be (ok, in 2021: make some phone calls) and one of them encourage his voters to support the other three?? It’s not exactly a race for President, your hurt pride will be comforted by the gratitude of, ah, dozens who care enough to follow this sh@#$.
It’s possible that the progressives are strong enough here to beat that right-wing cabal into 5th place — this is deep-blue Ames, IA. The right-wingers appearing on signs together may even be sort of helpful, like a voter anti-guide. But I am deeply worried.