Large number of candidates helps process

It goes without saying.

At the end of this day there will be more losers than winners. Those candidates eliminated in today’s primaries will outnumber the nominees– in the District Three supervisor’s race, for instance– eight to one.

So what’s the point? What is the point of a candidate having spent his or her money and energy to seek election only to be disappointed when the votes are tallied Tuesday night?

The point is that they have improved the process. They have made our local government, as cumbersome as it sometimes seems, somehow more responsive, more attuned to the needs of the people.

All these people who have sought office and found instead elimination as a result of Tuesday’s primaries have during their candidacies introduced their ideas into the system. They talked about them before voters and opposing candidates alike. And some of those good ideas will find their way into government even though the candidate who first spoke them them does not. That’s politics.

We can also thank the unsuccessful candidates for making election winners better public servants once they take office. The 2011 elections are out there as a day of reckoning when voters will pass judgment on how well the winners of 2007 have performed.

Express your appreciation to the candidates of 2007 whether they find themselves nominated or eliminated in tonight’s vote count. Some will conclude their political careers after tonight and never again seek public office. Some will continue to seek election to some post in every election for years to come and never get elected. Others will come back until their message so resonates with voters that they finally gain the office they seek. We thank them all. We’re glad we got to hear you and glad that you cared enough to stick your neck and your ideas into the public arena for voter scrutiny.

(The Panolian will post vote tabulations online as they are tallied tonight at www.panolian.com. Join us at the Panola County Courthouse in Batesville or join us online.)