SOME COMMENTS ABOUT TUESDAY'S ELECTION

Nationally, the major media has informed us all, at least a zillion times now, that Republicans were beaten to a pulp and Democrats are back in power...in a big way! National Democrat leaders are going out of their way to smile and say "unifying things" about their legislative intentions. This is certainly the smart thing to do and we will watch carefully to see how their "intentions" pan out.

Locally, the election was interesting. Here in St. Charles County, the voters sent several "messages." First, the Republican "get-out-the-vote" campaign and its constant telephone calls were annoying. In talking with people, both before and after Tuesday, many Republicans said they were so irritated by this tactic that they actually voted for Democrats just to "send a message."

Then there were Republicans who were "turned off" by the tactics used by the Party in the Primary election. They felt the state Republican Committee waged an unfair, "dirty" campaign of lies against another Republican who was simply exercising his right to be a candidate. This dissension may have resulted in some grass roots Republicans voting for a Democrat. Voting analysis from St Charles County that was done by Fox News seems to support that view.

Further aggravating the rift, neither the state Republican Party nor St. Charles County Republican leadership tried in any meaningful way to mend fences. In fact, after the primary election, some Republican leadership engaged in activity that further divided people. One result of this was that Jim Talent received less than "normal" support (Certainly out of St. Charles County) and that contributed significantly to his statewide loss to McCaskill.