Stop Wasting Money

The Guilderland election results for 2009 are in. Short story: For the next two years at least, Guilderland belongs to Ken Runion.

Details and some thoughts below:

For Supervisor:
Kenneth D Runion Jr 4,647
Peter A Golden 3,629

For the math-challenged, Runion won by over 1000 votes. That’s a big win.

For Town Board:

Paul C Pastore 4,665
Patricia J Slavick 4,605
Matthew D Nelligan 3,571
David B Fraterrigo 3,165

Back in 2007, these were the vote totals for Town Board (the only contested race):

Mark E Grimm 4,187
Warren Redlich 3,961
David A Bosworth Jr 3,730
Michael F Ricard 3,723

The most obvious detail is that the Dems won in 2009 by a far larger margin than we did in 2007. Another note is that turnout seems slightly higher this year, and that’s before absentee ballots are counted. The 2007 numbers probably include them.

Of course I’m disappointed. I’m also surprised. Our candidates worked hard. They spent a lot of money too – maybe three times as much as we spent. It seemed that Runion was particularly weak – with incidents like the Ghost of Altamont bringing him lower. His policy decision to raise his own pay while cutting paramedics seemed odd in an election year.

Political types can quibble about what the result means, or about what our team did wrong. That might be a worthwhile discussion if it was a close race. But it wasn’t. To me, Guilderland voters sent a clear message. They want Ken Runion to run Guilderland. I will be quieter for the next two years.