- Image by hlkljgk via Flickr
For quite some time the media has been playing up the idea that the voters are sick of the same old politicians. The media folks also speculated that the incumbents would take a beating in the primaries. Now that the results are in, the media folks seem to have been somewhat mistaken. It turns out that in 82 of 84 primaries, the incumbent won outright. So much for the alleged anger at the incumbents.
Suddenly at a loss for a theme, the media folks decided to go with the fact that some women have won the chance to run for office, such as the (in)famous Carly Fiona. This allowed them to make witty remarks about “ladies’ night” and “girl power.” Good save, folks.
Despite the sweeping incumbent victories, voter displeasure might still be real. After all, primaries are not general elections and differ from them in many ways. Primaries, obviously enough, just involve one party. Also, primaries can be rather orchestrated by those who control the party and they would tend to favor the incumbent. These factors might mean that the results of the primaries cannot be projected onto the general elections. An incumbent winning the primary for his/her party is one thing. An incumbent beating an opponent from the other party (or even that rare political animal, the viable independent) is another matter.
I suspect that the media folks will trot out anti-incumbent anger again when the general elections roll around. It will be interesting to see if they will be vindicated or if they will be struggling for another narrative when they are proven wrong. Again.
