The Morning After

The results are in, at least unofficially, but based on the preliminary numbers, there are not a lot of mysteries yet to be revealed. Pending the issuance of final numbers by the Town Clerk's office, the unofficial totals from yesterday's Plymouth Town election are posted on Wicked Plymouth

Approximately 25% of Plymouth's registered voters turned out yesterday to cast ballots in an election that had few competitive contests and, apparently, few compelling issues. While it is always chancy to extrapolate town-wide trends from a light voter turnout, there is still much that can be learned from these results.

The Selectman's race, one of only two contested offices on the ballot saw John T. Mahoney garner almost fifty percent more votes than did the two incumbents in an apparent voter statement against the status quo. Dicky Quintal, supporter of the popular Plymouth Rock Studio proposal edged out Jean Loewenberg by less than 500 votes for a narrow re-election. Ms. Loewenberg was a majority member of the Charter Commission which proposed a new charter which was thoroughly rejected by the voters.

William Wennerberg won a five-year term on the Planning Board, beating Board Alternate, Tim Grandy. It is interesting to note that while a total of 9,500 voters cast votes for the Charter Question, only 8,100 votes were cast in the Planning Board race. While there may be a bit of confusion among voters as to just what it is that the Planning Board does, it seems strange that approximately 1,400 voters, who had actually shown up at the polls, would not have cast a vote in one of only two competitive contests.

The proposed new Town Charter was overwhelmingly rejected by almost a two to one margin. In spite of a long-held belief by many Plymoutheans that the current form of Town government badly needs to be revised, the proposed plan, broadly criticized as being too complicated and lacking a clear chain of command, had garnered little pre-election support. It also appears that the the anti-charter sentiment was so pronounced as to seep over into the Selectman's race, thereby costing Jean Loewnberg re-election.

Garnering almost ninety percent of votes cast, the non-binding referendum on the proposed Plymouth Rock Studio was a big winner. Let's just hope that the various approval steps are carefully thought out and that the Town doesn't give away a valuable resource while in the throes of visions of movie stars sipping Margaritas at Sam Diegos.

One might argue, as the View has done, that the non-binding question on the Iraq war didn't belong on the municipal ballot and that it was really just a thinly-veiled call for pre-empting the Executive Branch's powers by cutting off the funding for the war, thereby undermining the efforts of our troops in the field. That having been said, many people have never really understood the wars rationale and are simply tired of it. Given a quick and non-binding chance to vent their frustrations, the results are sadly understandable.