Time to move on after the election

The election is over and now it's time for those successful candidates to prepare to work as officeholders for the benefit all of the county residents.

It's a time to forget about the Republican or Democrat party affiliations and a time to get serious about working together to help make Greene County a better place to live and work.

In every election there are winners and losers.

That's a fact of life.

Political officeholders put themselves out there in a very public job evaluation every two, four or six years -- depending what office they hold.

Some get the thumbs up from the electorate while others get shown to the door and told your services are no longer needed.

Fair or not fair every candidate should know that harsh fact every time they toss their hat in the political ring. There are no guarantees that the elected jobs, which are not covered by term limits, will last forever.

That's much like a private sector job. We are also subject to job evaluations and if we are not performing, we are also asked to leave.

I know that's not much consolation to a host of local experienced incumbents who took it on the chin in Tuesday's General Election and were told by the voters that their public service will not be needed after Dec. 31.

It's not always a fair system, and good and very qualified people do get beat in elections.

That happens and the candidates, while the disappointment of being defeated is a tough pill to swallow, should not have been shocked to find out that the sun did rise on the day after the election and life goes on.

What happened to most of the local Democrats this year was part of a nation-wide tsunami wave of "vote out anyone who was an incumbent or a Democrat" that started in Washington D.C.

The trend was fueled by a bad economy, the passage of some poor legislation and a general frustration among voters.

I realize that things like this may be hard to understand for the "good candidates" who came up in the loss column after Tuesday's votes were counted.

Again, that happens.

The mood around the Greene County Courthouse has been a somber one in recent days as the shock of the election results is beginning to sink in.

For the first time in God knows how long Republicans swept nearly all of courthouse offices, ousting Democratic incumbents in the assessor's, recorder's, clerk's, and coroner's offices as well as a two-term incumbent in the county commissioner's seat.

Out of 10 courthouse offices, nine are headed by members of the GOP.

County Treasurer Shelby Meurer is the lone elected Demo in the courthouse these days.

You know it would be creditable for the defeated candidates to be gracious losers and offer their assistance to make the transition for the new officeholders run smooth and orderly.

Serving those in the public in a cordial and professional way should remain job one.

Those exiting public office should also do the right thing and continue to show up for work every day until their term officially ends.

The last thing the county needs is for a mass exodus of lame duck officeholders to decide they are quitting on the job for which they were entrusted by the voting public to do and to finish.

The newly elected officerholders would also be wise to seek the counsel of those in office, asking a lot of questions and trying to figure out what has worked in the past. They should be slow to make drastic changes, but observe things for a while before re-inventing the wheel and making wholesale changes in the way things have been done.

Like it or not elections are a way we carry out our government and it's affairs.

Is the system perfect? Hardly.

But it sure beats the alternative of no elections at all.

Thanks to the 10,099 Greene County folks who voted and shame on the 10,029 registered voters that stayed home and didn't exercise their right to vote.

It's a sad commentary when we think that just over 50 percent voter turnout on a General Election Day is a good thing.

Nick is assistant editor for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at 847-4487 or 1-800-947-4487; by e-mail at schneider.nick@gmail.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nick-Schne....