Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Do 2008 Election Results Show Importance of Cable TV in Medina County?

In an earlier post this week, we pointed out that James Riley from Ashland County got more votes county-wide in the November 4, 2008 election than all but Holman, Obama, and Cordray. He did better in Medina County than Democratic candidates running for Commissioner, Treasurer, and Recorder, all of whom were from Medina County. The question is: Why?

One answer may be that he was higher up on the ballot. Voters came to his race before coming to the county-wide races for non-judicial offices. Ballot location, however, doesn't seem to be the answer. Even though the State Senator race was higher up on the ballot, not as many people voted in that election as voted in the races for other county-wide offices. In fact, the only race in Medina County for a non-judicial race that drew fewer votes was the race for Medina County Recorder.

What's interesting about Riley's race, though, was that according to a good friend of ours, the Democratic State Senate caucus ran ads for Riley on cable television systems in Medina County. None of the other local Democratic candidates were on cable television in Medina County.

In the judicial races, Judge Eve Belfance, running for the Ninth District Court of Appeals, also carried Medina County. In fact, she was the only Democratic candidate running in a contested Medina County judicial election to carry Medina County.

This means that with the exception of Dean Holman, Medina County Prosecutor, who was running in his sixth election, every Democratic candidate who won was on either cable television or broadcast television.

Further, the only Democratic candidate to receive under 40% of the vote, who was running for State Representative in the 69Th District, was up against an opponent who ran ads on cable television systems.

In 2010, when two county-wide elected positions will be on the ballot, Democratic candidates should seriously consider running cable television ads.

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