Monday, November 8, 2010

Congratulations, Senator Gerzofsky

(Note: Geez, we hope the editors got his name right.  We’re confident it’s spelled as above, but we notice in recent years he pronounces it as if it’s spelled Grezofsky.  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Senator?)

Well, no surprise to locals in the know.  Stan Gerzofsky won election for the 11th and 12th consecutive years in his “I am not a career politician” stint in the Maine legislature.  This will make years 3 and 4 as a State Senator, after terming out at 8 years as a Representative. 

If he was Governor, he’d be halfway through his 3rd term, but it’s a stretch, at least in his mind, to see this as a career thing.  The fun part is that while he won re-election, control of both houses of the Legislature, and the Blaine House, flipped from Democrat to Republican.  Which creates a situation that has not existed since the mid-60’s, if you can believe it.

This means Stan will no longer have the committee leadership positions he’s enjoyed in the past, nor will Charlie Priest and the rest of the former majority.  It will be interesting to see whether their devotion to ‘public service’ is as strong when they are in the minority as it was when they were the unchallenged big dogs in Augusta.

Stan won by roughly a 60% to 40% margin over Scott Thomas, a relatively unknown newcomer and late entry candidate from Freeport.  Scott, as we have reported, is a first rate, poised, and highly qualified candidate for public office, and we hope he will decide to run again.

Scott made a very fine showing against an entrenched Democrat machine candidate, and should be proud of his effort.  Be advised that if you saw figures claiming he was outvoted by something like 14,000 to 6,000 that those figures are wrong.  Gerzofsky’s total was 10,000 plus and Scott’s was 6,000 plus.

You may remember that a few weeks back we said Stan was proud of his humility.  He proved us right by making this statement to The Forecaster after the results were in:

Gerzofsky said he consistently heard from voters at the polls Tuesday he is doing a good job representing his district.  “The voters in my district have been very supportive. They appreciate the hard work I have done,” he said.

It almost makes you think Stan might have been electioneering at the polls, rather than just saying hello, per state law.  Naah; he’d never do that.

Now that the campaign is over, Stan should have plenty of time to get back to his interests in the haberdashery and furniture businesses.  Especially since he won’t have committee chair duties to worry about.

PInstripes anyone?  Or perhaps a new windsor chair or two for the dining room?

As for us, we’ll continue to research and report on Stan’s efforts on our behalf.  We find many of his public statements to be extremely interesting, if puzzling, and we often have a hard time confirming them.

Reporting on such curiosities is why we’re here, though.  And we’re mindful of our obligations to our readers.

As Forrest Gump said, “life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get.”

We prefer dark chocolate; how about you?

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