Post mortem time for the failure of Democratic victories to materialize in the Philly suburbs. What follows is the full text of a letter that was sent to all of Delaware County’s employees before the election.

The Democrat[sic] candidates for Delaware County Council have launched an all out assault on the integrity and character of the County’s government employees. They have been checking the party registration of County employees! David Landau, Ann O’Keefe, and John Innelli have insinuated that the only reason county employees like yourself have jobs is because of patronage, nepotism, and employees’ active engagement in partisan politics. As the only candidates with elected municipal government experience, we know that public and government service can often be a thankless task. But for the Democrats to drag the integrity and character of hard-working county [sic] employees like you through the mud for political purposes is unacceptable.

We know these personal attacks cannot be easy for you to take, and that is why we are writing to you today. Please know that we value your service to the residents of Delaware County. You provide important and vital services to residents that make Delaware County a great place to live, raise a family, work, and operate a business.

There is a reson that Delaware County has one of the lowest operating budgets in the Delaware Valley. That reason is the exemplary service of County workers like yourself, individuals who dedicate themselves to assisting local residents and working to ensure that the county is run in a fiscally responsible manner. In fact, it is this dedication from County employees that has helped result in no County tax increase in the past three years and no County tax increase in 7 of the past 10 years.

The Democrats [sic] smear tactics, false negative attacks, and politics of personal destruction should not be rewarded. That is why we hope we can count on your support and the support of your friends and family on Election Day, November 6th. For more information on our positions on the issues please visit our website at www.delco2007.com [sic]

If elected we [sic] will all be proud to work with you to continue good government in Delaware County.

Sincerely,

Christine Fizzano Cannon, Tom McGarrigle, Andy Lewis

I’m not going to react to this note at length, but I want to toss in several observations:

• 3100 employees plus their close family members represent a large number voters in an election that only turns out about 75,o00 (yes?) voters.
• Nowhere is it more true that perception is reality than in an election.
• In translation, the media translation of the “Case against the Courthouse” was “Delaware County employees are bad, and only have their jobs because they’re all Republicans.”

From my position as blogger-raging-against-the-machine, readers tell me the story that needed to be told: it’s not that County employees only have jobs because they’re registered Republicans, but that they’re all registered Republicans because that’s the only way anybody will let you have a job. Nobody actually believes that all of those employees are loyal GOP stalwarts. No, the Republican bosses simply make their employees render unto Caesar….

I hear it all the time. You canvass a household of registered Republicans. You’re told at the door, “Don’t worry, we’re Jimmy Carter liberals here. We’re just registered because my husband’s livelihood depends on it– you know, County government.” Or the spouse whose career advancement is threatened–directly, overtly–not because she is a Democrat, but because her spouse is. So exactly who is prying into the registration of others? Really?

In the end, the “Case Against the Courthouse” was a message that, like Othello’s love, worked not wisely but too well.

“The Case” garnered a lot of media attention, but like a California wildfire, it quickly burned out of control.

The case to be made, if the one-party rule was to be a central campaign issue, was against the Party bosses. The problem in Delco has always been the control of the system by a shadow cabinet, the vaunted war board. You know: McNichol, Catania, Judge, Sexton.

The message that should have been going out to County employees was: “We don’t care what party you’re a member of, but from now on, you’re going to be free–and we all are going to be free–of coercion and intimidation.”

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By the way, did the GOP candidates really get away with saying “the reason we haven’t had tax increases is because we compensate you for $h!t?