Higgins wins District 5

Dina Higgins cruised to a big victory as well yesterday. She beat Phil Austin with 57.3% of the vote. Not quite as high as my 59% prediction from the primary, but its still rather impressive. Its especially a big deal since she was far behind in fundraising. The Tribune has an interesting story about her grassroots campaign.

There are some bitter folks out there, and some are making it known in the comment section of the Republic Article. I think that there were some people who assumed that Austin's money advantage would translate into a closer race. As it is, it looks like her enthusiasm and feet on the ground got the job done. Sounds like she worked a lot harder. I don't buy any allegations of a whisper campaign or anything like that.

The other interesting observation is the day after the election, fundraising has become sort of a hot topic, with people saying that Smith only won because he had money and endorsements, but ignoring the fact that Higgins won without either. Could it be that perhaps voters are able to discern the candidates that they like from the ones that they don't?