OTBL CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

The conventional wisdom on OTBL regarding the results of the Hudson school board election is that James Baker did not try hard enough. The other four candidates campaigned hard - phone calls, door-to-door, leaflet drops, yard signs, meetings with community groups, the works. Mr. Baker ran a "stealth campaign."

The OTBL conclusion is that, if Baker would just have campaigned harder, he could have drawn as many votes as borderliners draw flies.

However, there may be other factors to explain the Baker loss:

1. In all the years he has lived in Hudson, he has failed to connect to the community.

2. He is well known to be connected at the hip with a group that everyone in town refers to as (roll eyes first) "that bunch."

3. People didn't buy his message, as set forth in multiple letters to the paper, multiple articles in the paper, and stated at the candidate forum.

4. People don't like voting for two time losers (now three times).

5. People were put off by the "Vote Me Only" campaign.

6. Those damn ugly signs.

Lessons learned, borderliners?

I didn't think so.