So what did Sissi have to say, other than that she's not quite ready to concede? "I am very surprised that the voters are wanting to go in this direction, I guess a more conservative direction."
And that little quote sums up what turned out to be the fatal flaw in Sissi's campaign: Her own naivety. Clallam County is a poor, rural, reddish county in a big blue state. Two of the three sitting County Commissioners are Republicans. Bill Peach nearly beat Mike Doherty last time out. Sissi sits on the City Council with a whole bunch - a majority, in fact - of Republicans. And yet, somehow, she is "surprised" by the fact that, what, there are a lot of Republican voters around there? Is Sissi better educated and smarter than Bill Peach? Almost certainly. Is she better acquainted with the real world and the issues we all face? Probably. Is she a hardline, partisan hack willing to plumb the depths and stab backs in order to get ahead? I don't think so.
But is she really, despite all that, so naïve as to think all she had to do was help Clallam County "get to yes"? Yes. And the quote above shows she still doesn't get it.
Ah, but Clallam County is going to get it. Though this political race is over, the race to the bottom has just begun. I would expect a lot more pandering to be coming out of the Courthouse, and a lot less sensible governing.
In any case, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this election, and this race in particular. Will it make a difference? Will it affect City politics? Will Sissi stay? How low will Clallam County go?
The more frighten and insecure people are, the more conservative they become.
ReplyDeleteAnd, people have good reason to be frightened and insecure. Anybody who thinks there are good times and smooth sailing ahead is ignorant of what is going on globally.
I doubt Sissi will stay for very long. She is a very smart person, and knows life can be better anywhere bit here. She has principle, and tried to help PA move forward (like so many of us have), and will likely come to the realization that "you can't help someone that doesn't want help."
To carry on with the psych analogies, often people who have serious issues have to hit rock bottom before they're willing to see what they're doing isn't working. "They have to get sick and tired of being sick and tired".
And, as we see from this election, PA isn't at that point, yet. After all these years.
Some people *never* get it, and live miserable lives until they die.
It will be interesting.
I totally agree that Port Angeles and Clallam County haven't (psychologically) hit rock bottom yet, which is pretty unbelievable, given just how bleak things are here.
DeleteI think the remoteness helps foster this. As does the older population. As does the poor education. As does tradition (mill jobs or no jobs). As does the endemic political corruption. You all get the idea.
Outsiders, and reality, need not apply - yet. But there's already SO little of worth or interest here, by the time the "real" locals wake up to how bad things are here, there'll be absolutely nothing left for do-gooders like Sissi to even try to "save."
Sissi looks good on paper, and had great appeal as a city council candidate.
ReplyDeleteBut, other than the CSO issue, and a couple of others, she hasn't shown much leadership on the council, and has been way too willing to go along to get along there. This is especially apparent given the generally low IQs of the current council members, and this tainted her appeal as a county commissioner candidate. Bill Peach, meanwhile, just had to sit back and have an "R" next to his name, and here we are.
I still come back to that "25 years ago" clip in the PDN the other day, where "where do we go from here" was being discussed.
ReplyDeleteI think Sissi and people like her (she hadn't been here that long) don't have the big picture perspective. They see a place that could be so much better, if only, and think some honest effort will get things going in the right direction. But, as we know, that is not actually what is going on.
Give the girl credit for making the effort. That's a hell of a lot more than most do.
Girl?
DeleteLighten up, already!
DeleteIf you're calling this adult, highly educated woman a girl, then you're not giving her credit for even growing up.
DeleteCasual sexism...How big a part did that play in Sissi losing the election?
Whew! Again, lighten up!
DeleteIf you're so bent on every word uttered fitting into your world view, or else, then life must be difficult indeed. We have real serious problems to address, and if you think a throw-away comment is worth this much thought and attention, we have no hope of ever moving forward.
Kind of like the way things really are, here. Hmmm.
Let's not forget that, if the numbers don't lie, then Sissi had to raise and spend a lot more money just to lose. As stated elsewhere, all Peach had to do was show up and be a Republican, and he won.
ReplyDeleteThe naivety and ineffectiveness that has already been described here really are big reasons that Sissi didn't break through. She came across as another namby-pamby liberal - not exactly the kind of politician that appeals to middle-of-the-road, undecided type voters. Her smiley, gee whiz persona obscured her very real strengths and skills, and made her look silly and out of touch.
ReplyDeleteClallam County right now is NOT a smiley place, but Sissi came across as not having noticed that. She probably thought she was being positive, but I think to a lot of people, especially West End people, she just looked silly, as in Cherie Kidd silly.
Now we have to face the future with the three right-wingers in charge. No matter how bad things get under their watch, I'm sure they'll see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.
Well, okay...They might speak some evil...
I didn't think Sissi would be an effective Commissioner but I voted for her anyway just on the hopes of seeing something different in the mix. Sadly was not to be the case so now we have three rapey, white, old republican white guys to deal with. If you think it's bad at the County now, just wait. The employees and residents are so screwed.
DeleteI let this through even though I'm not so sure what "rapey" means...But I agree that county employees and residents are screwed...
DeleteAn inside reference to a certain podcast that tends to lean towards the fact that's it's usually old white guys like that in top government in charge of deciding things like what a woman does with her own body, yet boner pills are readily available. Likewise rape in the military and such are usually ignored or found to be the woman's fault, etc. Would be nice to see a strong woman in top elected government positions around here just to offset that good old boy mentality but Sissi isn't it.
DeleteThanks for the explanation. You kids and your podcasts!
DeleteI agree with what Peter Ripley had to say about this election on his blog today. To quote:
ReplyDelete"And the results...reflected that sediment of people being fed up with ever tax increase that go no where."
My sediments exactly, Peter! Can't wait for the next City Council election, so you can try, try again. I'm guessing that Sissi's seat will be open, and you're just the kind of informed leader that can help keep us from going no where!
After what the Democrats did to their own Candidate (Dale Holiday) last time out, is it any wonder this is the result? The local Democratic Party is rotten at its core, and a lot of voters know it, and either don't vote at all anymore, or just figure it's all rigged and skip the County Commissioner's race on their ballot altogether. At least Dale knew to fight back, and speak up. Sissi seems to just think she can mean well and smile and nothing bad will happen to her.
ReplyDeleteWRONG.
The last three Democratic candidates for county commissioner here have been women. It's been shown pretty clearly that the two before Sissi Bruch had their campaigns torpedoed from within the Democratic party itself. I don't know that Sissi's problems were also internal to the party, but it wouldn't surprise me if the poison was still in that system. History repeats itself. Sigh...
DeleteAnonymous 7:46 AM: Yes, the poison is still in the system. We don't have the visible, public chaos that characterized the Randazzo era, but the Democrats are still plagued by internal problems, up to and including the continued prominence of Kevin Van De Wege and Steve Tharinger. I've stopped trusting, and am close to giving up even hoping for anything/anyone better here.
DeleteAt this point I just don't understand why Sissi doesn't do the sensible thing, the gracious thing, and concede. Every time there's been a vote count, Peach has added a little bit to his lead. Every count. With the number of votes left to count, she'd have to get the vast majority of them, as opposed to the slim minority she's gotten thus far, and that is statistically incredibly unlikely to happen.
ReplyDeleteIt is over, but Sissi, for whatever reason, seems to cling to some sort of pie in the sky hope that she'll prevail. But the outcome is so obvious, as noted above, even Peter Ripley can do the math.
I understand she must be disappointed. I get that. A lot of us are. But it only makes you look bad to drag this out this way, Sissi. It feeds right into the negative stereotypes about out of touch liberals. The election's over, it's been called, let's move on.
Yes, yes, Sissi didn't win.
ReplyDeleteMy concern is how these three Republicans are going to govern. That scares the hell out of me.
Sissi has a dismal voting record on the City Council. Could we expect anything better of her as a County Commissioner?
ReplyDeleteSissi's campaign got off to a bad start with her jumping in before Doherty had announced he was not running and then back pedaling with an extremely awkward "er ... um ..." apology kind of thing.
Not having been to Forks prior to running for the West End seat is kind of stupid. She should have been spending a lot of time there months before the primary.
Her smiley-gee-whiz campaing persona was naïve and rather grating. Peach looks like he was weaned on a pickle, but he looks serious. Sissi looked like she might seriously suggest McEntire and Chapman join her in a session of basket weaving or macramé to foster a communal spirit of goodwill.
Having Steve "Corruption" Tharinger at her side and lauding her with fulsome praise was *not* a smart move. That mailer she sent out where she's pictured smiling beatifically toward the light that emanates from Tharinger was stomach curdling. That same mailer also noted among her qualifications for the seat as being "quick" and "fun". I always vote for the "quick" and "fun" candidate every time and I'll bet you do, too.
Her campaign was slick and polished but ultimately naïve. It was filled with good intentions but little grasp of reality. Ultimately, I still have no idea why she decided to run for this office.
Thanks for your post - it summarizes my feelings as well. And I didn't know that she hadn't been to Forks before this campaign. If that's true, that is really thick as a brick stupid.
DeleteA lot of people disliked Sissi aligning herself so much with Steve Tharinger. Tharinger is disliked by many progressives in Clallam County, and I totally empathize with this poster's reaction to the stomach-curdling photos of Sissi and Tharinger together.
DeleteIf Tharinger had any sort of a credible opponent, he'd lose. But, by hook or by crook, he keeps drawing fringe candidates as opponents. Personally, I'd love to get a chance to vote for another Democrat in the primary. That might well take him out, too.
DeleteTharinger pushed for tax breaks for Nippon. Tharinger pushed for the needless, wasteful and just plain stupid widening of 101. Tharinger took pay for doing two government jobs, when he really was only doing one. Tharinger said he'd pay a big part of his county pay back, and didn't. Tharinger undercut candidates from his own party when they wouldn't go along with all his backroom BS.
DeleteSo yeah, not a lot for progressives or environmentalists to like, so he wasn't a good person to align yourself with, Sissi. By getting close to him, all you did was make it easier for him to put the knife in your back. Because, naïve or not, Sissi, I think you're basically honest, and that's a quality that's a threat to Steve Tharinger's continued political viability.
You obviously don't drive 101 much, Anon 10:24. I drive from Sequim to PA five days a week and having to switch from two lanes to one lane and back again was dangerous, especially at night. The widening of 101 from PA to Carlsborg is probably the best thing Tharinger has done for the area.
DeleteBut look on the bright side! (Not!!) Mary Ellen Winborn will be in charge of administering Community Development and environmental codes, with new prosecuting attorney Mark Nichols advising her on all the legal nuances.
ReplyDeleteIt is sobering, indeed, to contemplate what will happen to Clallam's natural resources with a totally Republican County Commission being advised by a Republican county attorney.
You're absolutely right. Not just the liberals will want to move out of Clallam County now; even the wild animals will want to clear out, or be clear cut.
DeleteAnd it looks like it's officially official - as if it weren't before.
ReplyDeletePer the latest count, Peach is ahead by over 900 votes, with a total of 75 ballots (that they know of) left to count. So unless Sissi has a thousand overseas mail-in ballots that she's waiting for...
Well, I'm sure Rob is glad, if no one else.
ReplyDeleteFor whatever reason, the homeless seem to flock here. Port Angeles must have something good to offer them.
ReplyDeleteGuess if I comment on a single post on this site...I'll be THE ONLY identifiable person? ? ? I have too random peeks at each months post and they all have ANONYMOUS commenters? What is up with that???
ReplyDelete