Jay Russell did. Here’s what happened. Many people in addition to Russell contributed to the downfall of the Northampton Republican regime. But it all could have been different. The entire Northampton Republican Committee had the ability to win the election for the Republicans. In February I predicted to the Republican committee that the township would be lost to the Democrats because the Republicans were about to endorse an un-electable candidate. I could see that the Democrats were outraged because of how badly the incumbent treated them so the Democrats would be energized if the incumbent supervisor was endorsed and the energy would work in their favor which would lead the Democrats to their win in November. The solution in February was for the Republicans to endorse me because if they endorsed me I would have won in November. Did they listen? No. The age old rule is that an incumbent must be endorsed. They followed the rule but they failed to accurately consider the missing attriutes of the incumbent.
But more than the bad decision by the committee, Jay Russell ran against the incumbent and against me. Jay had been my friend. We ran together for supervisor, but he changed from the friend I once knew. He told numerous people that he only got on the primary ballot to spite me. Russell admitted he had no chance to win but he wanted revenge. Why? He started his descent into some very wrong behaviors by getting my name removed from Tea Party E-Mail lists. I retaliated by helping analyse his nominating petitions, which had about 3,800 signatures but we documented over 8,500 problems, – so I advised him to resign as a candidate. Two years later he decided to retaliate by running against me as a Republican. He received over 300 votes. I lost by 91 votes which meant that if 46 people had voted for me instead of the incumbent, I would have won the primary and together with the committee we could have keep Northampton Republican. The big problem for the Republicans was that Jay upset their plans. If I had won the primary I would have cruised to victory in November and the Republicans would still control Northampton. But the endorsed candidate won. The Democrats were incensed. They campaigned with increased vigor. So I get to say: – I told you.
Some people including the incumbent, blamed me and one other Republican who had been mis-treated by the Republican leadership for the loss. That’s crazy thinking. If it were true that would mean that me and one other Republican had more ability than the entire Republican leadership. So it’s not true. There’s one person who helped the incumbent win in the Primary and that increased the desire of the Democrats to work much harder to win. They did. That’s exactly what I told the Republicans would happen.
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