Last night, I won re-election to the post of town supervisor in my small Adirondack town. 74% to 26%. In raw votes, 418-150.
What makes this somewhat interesting that that I am a Democrat and the voter registration here is pretty close to a 2-1 republican advantage. When I won two years ago, my margin of victory was 2-1. Last night it was closer to 3-1. I like the trend.
FYI, it might help paint the picture if you all knew that I am 56 years old, I wear my hair in a pony tail, and I have a pretty massive beard. Oh, and I wear shorts and flip-flops when the weather permits. Which makes my toe ring pretty evident. So, to what do I owe my success you might ask?
The answer is, community involvement. I spent 13 years on the local planning board (a thankless job that is hard to fill around here...), 7 years as a volunteer EMT/Paramedic, and a volunteer for a lot of other town functions. Eventually I got elected to the town board, and when the then supervisor opted not to run in 2011, I stepped up, and much to my surprise, I won overwhelmingly.
Now, my town only has about 2400 full time residents. So it's not too daunting of a task to interact with a large percentage of the folks, but it does take some effort to make most of those interactions positive ones.
So, long story long, it is possible for a Democrat to prevail in a rather red area, it just takes some leg-work and perseverance.