Laurels & lances: Election edition
Share this post:
Laurel: To doing your duty. Off-year elections are often sluggish things with little interest or involvement, but not this time.
On Tuesday, voters stepped up and did their part. They made choices and cast ballots in ways that had real impact statewide, in both Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, in school districts and municipalities.
It wasn’t lockstep. It wasn’t a crashing wave. There were surprises for both parties and in some fairly significant races.
And that is the way it should be. An election should not be a foregone conclusion. It should be the culmination of people thinking about the issues and making a decision that could change right up until the moment the last box is checked.
Lance: To sour grapes. Ideally, the candidate will understand there is a good chance they could win but an equal chance they could lose. That gives them the opportunity to practice good sportsmanship with a gracious concession speech.
Or you could go the way of Norwin School Board member Alex Detschelt. The force behind the Change4Norwin faction of candidates and supporters was not pleased after the opposing “We aRe Norwin” slate of five candidates won the available seats.
Detschelt responded with a lengthy diatribe castigating millennial parents and decrying that too many women voted. He blamed mail-in voting, unmotivated Republicans, RINOs (Republicans in name only) and “phoniness within the community.”
“Norwin has fallen,” he proclaimed and said there will never be another conservative on the Norwin board.
In reality, the people made a choice. That happens. It isn’t always the choice you like, but politics isn’t about winning. It’s about working to make things better. No one ever does that by pouting when the votes are counted.
Laurel: To speaking up. One of the most encouraging things about this election was that people didn’t just wait to get involved on Tuesday. Residents were participating actively in debate for months.
The Trib’s opinion pages were thick with letters about everything from the state Supreme Court slot to their local boroughs and everything in between.
One example was a robust interest in district judge seats, in particular the northwestern Westmoreland County seat held by incumbent Cheryl Peck Yakopec for 29 years. Both her supporters and those of opponent Leslie Uncapher Zellers engaged in zealous letter-writing for their chosen candidates.
Yakopec won but not due to lack of support for Zellers. The race shows that when something matters to people, they aren’t shy about speaking up.