Yesterday was election day in some municipalities. I didn’t realize this until I saw the scroll at the bottom of the television screen last night, with local election results posted.

Local elections are technically “non-partisan”. That means the party affiliation doesn’t appear on the ballot, and candidates generally don’t run as Democrats or Republicans. But I think it’s common knowledge that a Democrat is going to handle governing a municipality one way while a Republican will have a very different outlook on governing. In some municipalities, especially where growth or water or affordable housing is an issue, this can be a pretty significant difference.

I don’t have results from across the state, but I did get an e-mail this morning from our Western Slope regional coordinator, Kim Phillips. Kim reports a HUGE shift in the Durango City Council. Two Republican incumbents were unseated, and three new Democrats were elected, which transforms the City Council to a 4-1 Democratic majority! Here’s what Kim has to say:

I wanted to share with you the excitement in Durango tonight!!

The La Plata Democratic Party can brag about 3 Democrats winning seats on the Durango City Council.

While the candidates are not nominated by the party, being non-partisan races, the La Plata Dems did what they could to support all the Democrats running.

Congrats to the successful candidates for the Durango City Council:
Leigh Migs, Michael Rendon, and Scott Graham.

I understand 2 incumbent Republicans were unseated,and these 3 wins make for a 4-seat advantage to Democrats on a 5-seat council.

Now, it is about good governing and solid stewardship of the issues critical to the communities in La Plata: water, afforable housing, oil and gas extraction, smart growth, renewable energy options.

I also wanted to thank those candidates who heeded the call to duty but were unsuccessful tonight. Being a candidate is a tough job, and an appreciable sacrifice of one’s personal, professional and family time and resources.

A final thanks goes out to the volunteers, such as Julie Levy, who donate their time, talent, energy, money, and shoe leather to get the candidates across the finish line.

With 4 Democrats on the city council and 2 Democrats as County Commissioners, La Plata County will be well served.

Amen, Kim! How about in your locality? Did you have elections? How did they turn out? Go online and report your results in the “comments” section to let us know how things went for your Democrats where you are.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Counties, County Races. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.