This has bugged me for awhile so it's time to say it and get it over with.
When County Commission Chair William Rogers announced his candidacy for the 66th House district, the Livingston Press & Argus all but annointed him the winner of the general election, still nearly a year away.
In its article in editions for Nov. 11. the newspaper noted, "The district is heavily Republican, so the winner of the GOP primary, scheduled for August, typically has the inside track for victory in the general election."
Why declare the race over before it's begun? Why not just give the facts? Why not just say that the incumbent, Republican Chris Ward, won re-election in 2004 with 71.1 percent of the vote and in 2006 with 65.7 percent of the vote? Then the reader can make a judgment for himself or herself about what those numbers mean.
But that would mean calling attention to a decline in the Republican share of the vote.
2 comments:
So it's not a fact that the GOP primary winner typically wins the election? Seems pretty factual to me.
That's a 5.4 percent imporvement every year. At that rate, it'll be 2012 before the election is even close, and by that time the districts weill have been redrawn.
Post a Comment