The Irretrievable Loss

Tuesday's big loss by Monroe County Democrats will resound to their detriment for years to come.   Its implications extend well beyond one election cycle.   Democrats didn't lose just that.   Far more significantly, they lost what would have been the ability to finish Republicans politically at the county level, and to control county government for at least a decade.

The County Legislature elected on Tuesday is the body that will draw new county legislative districts after the 2010 Census.   These will be the districts that legislative candidates contest two years from now, in 2011.

Democrats would have drawn districts slicing up the City like a pie, extending each slice as far into the suburbs as possible without jeopardizing each district's majority-Democratic makeup. Think of Susan John's Assembly district, extending from the City into Chili, or Joe Morelle's Assembly district, that includes the City and Irondequoit.

That opportunity now has been lost to them, come what may in future elections.   The next chance comes in 10 years.

Thus did voters avoid on Tuesday yet another aspect of the Albanization of Monroe County, that would have occurred had Democrats picked up just one more seat in the County Legislature.