Commentary; Posted: 11/20/02

With FL recount over, time to move on

Cliff Buchan

With the completion of a recount in the Forest Lake mayoral race last week, it is now time for Forest Lake and its political combatants to move on.

The election recount produced a result we suspected. The outcome was still the same in a very close race. Mayor Ray Daninger has been reelected. The only change was the margin of victory. It will end up as 20 votes, not the 21 from election night on Nov. 5th.

The result is a positive statement of our election system in Forest Lake and Washington County. With 7029 ballots cast in the city election, the accuracy of the machine count is impressive.

As close as this election was, it was proof of the importance of each vote. While Daninger won, he realizes the community is split fairly evenly on their choice for mayor.

The mayorís race brings back memories of our last presidential election where the candidate with the most popular vote, Al Gore, lost by the Electoral College vote to President George W. Bush who carried more states than Gore.

If our precincts in Forest Lake would have been Electoral College votes, Dick Tschida, who won three of the five precincts, would have been mayor. In this case, the total vote is the ruling factor and gives the mayoral duties to Daninger.

It is interesting to note in the mayorís race that 353 voters did not vote in the contest, but left their ballot blank. Another 17 voters cast write-in ballots. In a race decided by 20 votes, it would seem that these 370 voters could easily have been deciding factors.

Daninger will do well in leading the city for the next two years. The council that is set to take office in 2003 will be the best yet in representing this combined city.

The election of Rick Ashbach and Susan Young, two residents of the former township, should give badly needed voice to the residents who have felt they have had no place at the council table in the past two years. Both have government experience as an elected official or government worker.

We would hope that the public accepts this election as a step in the right direction. It is time for the public to move ahead as one.

Forest Lake is facing critical growth decisions and it will take the positive energy of all parties, not negative energy, to make sure that the right course is platted for our walk into the future.

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