I have worked with him on a past campaign where he had been a valuable organizer for Chris Easthope’s 2008 run for Ann Arbor District Judge, where he worked with primarily Democratic supporters in getting Chris elected. He and fellow Republican Jessica Ping marshaled valuable bipartisan support for Easthope in a close primary and general election.

Given Mr. Ouimet’s past spirit of bipartisanship, I was rather dismayed to see the conduct of some Democrats in negative campaigning against Mr. Ouimet. It obviously did not work. It may have backfired as a Democratic incumbent who sat on the County Commission and who was cited in the County Clerk’s report for receiving questionable per diems got the boot by voters who narrowly elected the Republican challenger.

I agree that the Democrats could have fielded a better-known candidate than Green. As a member of the Bar I have heard her name but was unfamiliar with any political experience or qualifications she may have had. I have never met Ms. Green.

I am pleasantly surprised that the GOP now controls both the Michigan Senate and House chambers. Its quite a turnaround from the Democratic landslide of 2008.

Perhaps Ann Arbor GOP chairman Jim Hood should start trying to recruit candidates for the 2011 elections locally.

In fairness to Dave (and Mr. Clark) re: the 5th Ward event: Mr. Clarke invited me to join in challenging the incumbent Mr. Hohnke to a series of political debates in a variety of forums. I suggested that Dave Askins moderate one event, Mr. Clark agreed, and I called Dave to start the ball rolling. I cannot speak for Dave, but my guess is that no one else ASKED him to organize a candidate forum, and that may be a part of why he did not organize any other events. As well, there was a learning-curve about securing 5th ward venues, and Dave’s determination to invent something that would not duplicate the League of Women Voters format also required a certain effort. I could imagine not having energy to organize more, at least this first time out.

In fairness to you, while local political coverage is more often about the inside-baseball, horse-race element, and less about the issue content of elections, last summer’s AnnArbor.com coverage of the mayoral primary was remarkable in the degree to which it was untainted by discussion of issues. The coverage was crystalline in that regard, achieving a purity seldom found in nature.

Dave, I’ll be looking for your bike, 5 stories below. Pedaling back out should be quite a feat, even for you.

I’ve been thinking and thinking and thinking about this entry. You’re thoughtful, to be sure, but near-sighted in your analysis. To conclude that the “sky is not falling” based on the vote is missing one very, very important point: because of the shallow, lop-sided and biased political coverage (if we can even call it that) people have no idea what the sky really looks like, at the moment, nor have they had an honest representation of the sky for years.

For the first time since you began your news blog, you sponsored a candidate forum. I was pleasantly surprised, and the format was what I expected from you, quirky. But only one? In one Ward? Your explanation was what it was, but at base it was journalistically lame. “We only cover politics where we live?” Come on. You felt the need to justify. I don’t buy your reasoning, but who cares, right?

Carsten Hohnke dodged your site big time, and AnnArbor.com. Where was Judy McGovern with her analysis of Hohnke’s behavior for your site? Where was AAO’s John Hilton with his two-cents? You encouraged McGovern and Hilton to comment on Hatim Elhady’s motives and, ultimately, condemned his decision when he ran last year for volunteering to answer questions by email. Can you explain why Carsten Hohnke didn’t get the same treatment for not volunteering to answer questions at all from the media when asked?

I can, but you won’t like my explanation. You and John Hilton screwed up? You played favorites?

Your site observes, and you have delved in “analysis” on occasion. However, you’re in the worst possible position to offer analysis of an election, because you rarely offer in-depth analysis of the issues, and (it appears) only of certain people who run for office.

Finally, the incumbents won, in part, because news coverage of local politics is horridly incurious (or deliberately confined to observing—except when it’s not). So, no, for me it wasn’t hard to garner a small percentage of the total vote. What’s hard is to read what passes for political coverage and political “analysis” in Ann Arbor by the local media. The coverage is hiding the sky.

Christine Green had served as a Scio Township Trustee (an elected position) before running for State House. She was well known in Scio Township.

It should also be mentioned that Mark Ouimet ran an excellent campaign to get elected to the State House seat held by term-limited Democrat Pam Byrnes. He beat Democrat Christine Green by only 2%.

I believe that the Washtenaw County Democratic Party and the Ann Arbor Democratic Party both dropped the ball by not recruiting a more well-known candidate to run against Mark.

The seat in question was won by Mrs. Byrnes with 62% of the vote in 2008. The State House district boundary lines include the Democratic Party-dominated Second Ward of Ann Arbor and Scio Township as well as some outlying areas that are traditionally Republican bastions.

A more well-known candidate such as Joan Lowenstein, Tony Derezinski, or Steve Rapundalo, all of whom are Second Warders, could have beaten Mr. Ouimet. Christine Green had not run for public office before whereas Ouimet was heavily involved in local matters and well-known to the A2 electorate.

The Rick Snyder coattail effect likely aided Ouimet as well.

Should a bigger name run as a Democratic nominee in 2012,this House seat will likely be returned to the Democrats.

Newcombe Clark shows how hard it is to mount any campaign without party affiliation as does Steve Bean. Both of whom are well-known and liked in Ann Arbor. It also shows how good Hatim Elhady’s 2008 independent campaign finish of 36% was considering he ran against a Democratic party nominee.

Thanks to all the registered voters who actually voted this November. Its what makes us a democracy.

Ideally, this piece would have appeared sooner than 8 days after the election. The week of the general election in any year is a challenge, because Tuesday is election day, Wednesday is when the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority meets, and Thursday is when the Ann Arbor city council meets. We gave a higher priority to finishing up the regular meeting reports for the DDA and the city council than to an analysis of the city elections — based on the idea that regular reporting should take priority over an opinion piece. It was published as soon as it was ready. That is, we didn’t hold it to be published on Veterans Day. But on reflection, I can see why a reader might wonder if there was supposed to be some Veterans Day connection to the piece, given the prominence of the American Flag in the photo.

Your analysis does not mention one of the oddities about that race, which was pointed out to me by one of my supporters. That is the unusual number of write-in votes (461). Even if I had received every one of those votes, I still would not have won. But I’m curious about why people were writing in another candidate for a three-person selection. Presumably if they were really unhappy with the current board, they could have voted for me. Or they could have voted just for one or two candidates if they didn’t like their other choices. Or if totally bored, just skipped the whole thing.

No one submitted paperwork to become a qualified write-in candidate, so it seems that we won’t know who was written in unless someone goes to inspect ballots personally after the canvass. The city clerk tells me that the identity of individuals who received those votes will not have been recorded and that the canvassers will not record this information either.

So was this a protest movement of some sort? A “ghost” candidacy? I’d love to know the story behind it all.

You need party affiliation.

Straight-ticket Democrats make it impossible for independents to be elected in Ann Arbor. Look what happened in your Fifth Ward. How could Hohnke lose when 42% of the voters in that ward voted straight-ticket Democratic Party.

Frankly, I do not believe anyone could have beaten the Burgermeister this election cycle or any within the last 10 years. Look what happened to Marcia Higgins and Wendy Woods.

Hieftje is a political boss in the vein of Richard Daley or Orville Hubbard. He is virtually impossible to realistically challenge due to a series of political alliances he has made that guarantee massive voter support in an electorate where most do not even vote. He is a master politician.

Once he retires, I expect you and a number of other local officials to have good shots at public office. Hieftje may even endorse you.