Chris is publisher of the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by email at cpruett79@gmail.com or by calling (812) 847-4487

Online poll was about on target

Posted Wednesday, November 3, 2010, at 2:18 PM

The people have spoken.

That's the popular phrase today as voters across the country celebrate what they consider to be major change.

On the state level, Gov. Mitch Daniels must be feeling rejuvenated. Republicans now control the General Assembly, as they took back control of the House and have more than a two-thirds majority in the Senate.

You can expect some of his "local government" reform bills that have stalled in the House in the past to now get passed -- or receive serious consideration.

On the national level, Republicans picked up at least 56 seats to take control of the House. In the Senate, Democrats lost six seats but still have control.

What does this all mean? People were frustrated heading into the polls and wanted change. Just like they did two years ago when President Barack Obama was elected.

But it took only two years for the country to start screaming for change again. What will happen in two more years? Four years? Six years?

President Obama preached for change during his campaign, and has said thousands of times that we're not Republicans or Democrats, we're Americans.

That's pretty elementary, but true.

On the local level there's been a major shift in political thinking. Greene County, for many years, was considered a Democrat county. The Linton and Jasonville areas were solidly Democrat with the areas in eastern Greene being Republican.

That changed Tuesday night. In the six county races that everyone voted on -- clerk, auditor, recorder, coroner, assessor, commissioner District 3 -- Republicans won 60 percent of the vote.

On Jan. 1 there will be only one Democrat officeholder in the courthouse -- treasurer Shelby Meurer. According to Greene County Republican Chairman Otto Prow, it's the first time since 1984 that that many Republicans have been in county office.

Did anyone see the GOP sweep coming?

Participants in the Greene County Daily World's online poll did.

In the contested county races, the poll was correct in all but one race -- coroner.

The results (the final week of the poll is listed first with the actual results listed second):

* Clerk -- Susan Fowler R (54.7% - 54.07%); Jackie Winstead D (37.0% - 45.03%)

* Auditor -- Matthew Baker R (57.0% - 59.83%); Sue McDonald D (36.8% - 40.17%)

* Recorder -- Stuart Dowden R (57.0% - 56.72%); Rita Hennette D (37.3% - 43.28%)

* Coroner -- Sherry Wilson R (39.9% - 51.89%); Brian Gainey D (51.3% - 48.11%)

* Assessor -- Willard Neill R (52.1% - 56.05%); Nancy Senellenberger D (38.1% - 43.05%).

* Commissioners District 3 -- Rick Graves R (66.7% - 68.89%); Bart Beard D (27.2% - 31.1%)

* Greene County Council District 2 -- Ed Cullison R (55.9% - 68.5%); John Beach D (28.5% - 31.5%)

The poll was unscientific, but as it turned out, it was pretty close.

It gauged the mood of the voters prior to the election, week by week.

Congratulations to the winners and keep in mind what happened Tuesday. The same thing could happen in four years if "change" doesn't take place.

Comments

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REPUBLICANS RULE

-- Posted by cruella on Wed, Nov 3, 2010, at 7:23 PM
Willow, As I'm standing in the unemployment line this next year I'll take great comfort in that "fact".

Mitch and Tony are slobbering as they await January to destroy our schools. Thanks Pelosi, Reed and Obama...

-- Posted by Music Man on Wed, Nov 3, 2010, at 8:15 PM
Republicans--Democrats---Makes no difference. What we need is SOMEONE to fix this country! We get too hung up on partys. What we need is men and women who can make a difference. Forget the politics, just make this a better place for all Americans to live.

-- Posted by Scorpio1969 on Thu, Nov 4, 2010, at 12:36 AM
The Election is over for another 2 years. Let's move on and pray that God will bail us out!

-- Posted by #1LakerFan on Thu, Nov 4, 2010, at 11:28 AM
dhobbs,

Put your teeth back in the glass my friend.

I teach at two public schools and a university.

I worry about my job(s) as I have a family.

I worry about the schools because education is

precious.

I worry about people like you.

-- Posted by Music Man on Thu, Nov 4, 2010, at 11:36 AM
So you "hate" teachers. Oh dear...you ARE

in a very hurtful place. I'm so sorry dhobbs.

I am so sorry for your hate. That explains

every post of yours I have ever read.

It's so sad....

-- Posted by Music Man on Thu, Nov 4, 2010, at 11:49 AM
Duty free lunch. Back to work soon. I hope you're enjoy yours.I understand crow is quite tasty.

That said, those who prepare it seldom notice they are eating it.

-- Posted by Music Man on Thu, Nov 4, 2010, at 11:58 AM
That would be All-State; the good-hands people.

Stupidity aside...

The fact that nobody in the blog anywhere has said, in a factual manner, what is "wrong" with public schools is amazing to me. What further muddies the waters is nobody has been able to define what a "bad teacher" is. "Horse sense" and "common sense" being two more terms that folks use to defend positions on this or that; again, no definition. Nobody seems to want to put a number on what is reasonable pay for a teacher yet several seem to think we all make too much.

Red Herrings abound throughout the blogosphere as once opinions become accepted facts. The very fact that we are in a county with school systems who have jumped through every "Mitch hoop" placed before them only to be told, "do that again but with less staff and less resources" seems to be lacking both common and horse sense. That would be, if we could define those terms. We hear buzz words such as "global economy" and "global job market" and yet we ship jobs to China. We expect our children to compete for jobs in the global market. Is this the "global market" and "21st century job" you speak of? Is anyone ready to move to China, live in that mess, and work for beans?

What are we trying to say here? Somebody wiser than me needs to make some sense of all this posing.

-- Posted by Music Man on Thu, Nov 4, 2010, at 4:32 PM
I'm tired of hearing about it to.

I will be the last to complain about pay at current levels. I'm personally tired of hearing about "overpaid teachers" as I truly don't know any personally. All the teachers I know work for every dime. Now, the people who sit and blog all day while working for a certain federal agency; that's a horse of a different color all together.(grins)

Results in the classroom start at home. They did when I was a kid and they did with my child.

A child who goes to school with the parent's attitude of "teachers are overpaid do-nothings and the system is broken" will likely do about as well as their parents did... or worse.

My concern is Mitch has already cut our schools to the quick. The Mitch puppets don't believe that and will vote for cuts and more cuts until all you have left is an ISTEP passing machine.

At that point we can have our kids compete for jobs in China as test takers!

-- Posted by Music Man on Thu, Nov 4, 2010, at 7:33 PM
Music Man: I have stated in my other posts that I think the breakdown of the traditional family structure is to blame for a lot of ills in society. One of these being the problems in the school system. How can teachers expect to teach well if there are kids that do not receive discipline at home and the parents of these kids could care less that their little Johnny or Janie are causing issues in school or in society.

With that said, I also feel that tenure in any job is a cancer. If you cannot get rid of those that quit improving themselves, then you will be stuck in the same rut year after year. Sitting and drawing a paycheck day after day is not helping anyone. But I also feel you have to set up some sort of evaluation to know a good employee from a bad one. That may take a committee of individuals that do not have a horse in the race. But I can tell you one thing I believe and that is the status quo in our schools is not working. I have seen schools dumb down their requirements more and more over the years. I have seen good teachers turn into bland vanilla teachers because of the rules and regulations imposed on them.

Will my posts solve the problem? No. Will more money solve the problem? I don't believe it will. There may come a day where parents start pulling their kids out of the public school system in droves and sue the government to be able to get their tax money directed to a private school of their choice.

I know it is not popular but I also pray for our teachers and government officials often. Asking God to send wisdom their way. I may not have all the answers, but I try to lean on the One who does.

-- Posted by bhobbs on Sun, Nov 7, 2010, at 4:30 PM

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