2008 Election Results Analysis

In my 2008 race for State Representative, I received 43% of the votes on election day, and 30% of the early votes, for a combined total of 37% - the same percentage that B.J. Lawson (aka Ron Paul, Jr.) received in his Congressional race in North Carolina this year. That is a higher percentage than the following Republican candidates received in Salt Lake County: Rob Bishop, Bill Dew, Mike Renckert, Jon Fidler, Gordon Storrs, Joe Jarvis, Garrett Clark, Seth Robert Wright, Kay Garske, Lisa Morrise, and Linda Cooper.

My opponent was two-term incumbent Democrat Mark Wheatley. His 57% on election day this year is the same total percentage he received in 2006 against my current Republican Senate District Chair, Jay Brummett. Brummett spent over $11,000 on the 2006 race compared to the under $6,000 that I spent this year.

My 2,727 votes this year are more than the 2,433 votes Wheatley received in his 2006 victory (for which he spent over $16,000).

This election wasn't a rejection of my volunteers, me, or our message of liberty, prosperity, and transparency. We received positive feedback from most people with whom we communicated. It also wasn't an endorsement of Wheatley or his campaign. Most people with whom my volunteers and I communicated had never heard of him. We basically didn't get the message out early enough or to enough people. If 972 of the 4,670 people who voted for my opponent this year would have voted for me instead, I would have won. The early voting and the Obama/Matheson/Corroon/Horiuchi Democrat tsunami really hurt us. Straight-party votes accounted for 46% of the votes cast in my district. Among those, 61% were Democrat and 37% were Republican.

Thank you to each of you that have contributed time, money, effort, and/or advice to my campaign for State Representative. It has been humbling to witness your generosity and a pleasure to work with you. I will be having a volunteer appreciation dinner on Saturday, November 15, at which we will be discussing lessons learned and ideas for the 2010 election cycle. If you're interested in attending, please RSVP online at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=32187324098 - it doesn't cost anything. :-)

P.S. Tonight (November 20th) I received the precinct-by-precinct results and found that we tied or won in 7 of my district's 27 precincts on election day, with an average of 62% of the vote in those precincts! :o) I will look more closely at why we did so well in those precincts, and plan on duplicating that as much as possible in all of my district's precincts in 2010, with increased focus on early and absentee voting.