Election Congratulations

Congratulations to all of the candidates who ran in this past election.  It was a fine showing by everyone.  Congratulations to the Republicans, many of whom I know well outside of politics.  Your Party represented it's positions well.  And congratulations to the Independenf Party candidates.  Sometimes it takes a third party to bring clarity to issues, even if I don't necessarily agree with your points of view.  But they helped to better focus my own.  Before the election, someone on Patch asked the question where were the Dems, since our candidates were not formally introduced on Patch.  Well, I thought that getting on Patch that late in the game was risky, and might have invited political suicide.  We had our strategy in place and chose to stick with it.  And I think we did pretty well without a Patch presence.  But that will change.  Over the coming two years, there will be Democratic voices on Patch: conservative (at least for us), moderate, liberal, and progressive, adding our perspectives to the ones that already exist here on these pages.  My hope is that the discussions we generate will revolve around policy decisions and directions, offering our ideas and positions about both, without resorting to personal attacks.  I cannot promise that, but I will do what I can to make that happen.