Credit where credit is due

Winning the County Commissioners' race is huge. Beyond huge. And even though I continue to have very large issues with the MCDC leadership, it is time to say "Well done."

Local pundits will crunch the numbers for a long time over this one, but I'm sure we'll see that the race was won with huge turnout in the Eastern part of Montgomery County.

Meanwhile, there's another facet of the race that has gotten almost no attention, but I think it smacks of (dare I say) genius. That compliment is not given lightly to this crew, believe me.

But as much as I could not believe county Democrats weren't fielding a candidate to oppose Risa Ferman for DA, I now look at that as a brilliant strategical move.

Here in the Philly burbs (and elsewhere), Democrats lose law & order races. Whoever Marcel & Co. put up against Ferman would have been a sacrificial lamb anyway. But more than that, it would have opened the door for all kinds of "Democrats are soft" talk. And enough of that kind of talk could easily have poisoned the well for the Commissioners race, too.

But by not running a candidate for DA, the county Democrats completely took that card off the table.

It's not the only reason that Shapiro and Richards (yes, I will now acknowledge she has a name) won last night. But it's part of the big picture, and in hind sight, I appreciate how smart it was.