Our View: Congratulations, winners; now get ready to work

Congratulations are due to virtually everyone who participated in this week’s election. Running campaigns is exhausting, expensive, intensive work. Without the winners and losers, we have no choice.

For the winners, if the euphoria of victory hasn’t already worn off, it will when you are required to make that truly difficult decision. Good luck.

One of the most visible local races in Stanislaus County was in Turlock, where Gary Soiseth beat Mike Brem for mayor. It wasn’t close as we expected with two such quality candidates. We congratulate Mayor-elect Soiseth. Turlock also provided one of the surprises. Newcomer Mathew Jacob got the most votes in a five-person race for two council seats. He polled nearly 30 percent of the total votes, beating both incumbents. As of Friday, it appeared incumbent Bill DeHart Jr. will get the other seat, leaving longtime councilman Forrest White off the council.

Speaking of mayors, congratulations to Luis Molina, who got more than twice as many votes as any other candidate in Patterson.

In Oakdale, citizens voted to continue taxing themselves a half-percent on purchases. And it wasn’t close. The committee that put together the Yes campaign was effective and credible, as 70 percent of voters said yes.

In Turlock, the sales tax hike to fund road improvements didn’t get the same result. They needed a two-thirds majority but lost by 789 votes. Is that a signal to county leaders that it’s getting more difficult to make a case for increasing sales taxes? Perhaps. Interestingly, Measure A, to abandon at-large council elections for city districts, passed easily. In Merced, a similar measure barely squeaked through.

Finally, we have to mention the value of a single vote. Sometimes we’re tempted to write in a favorite uncle’s name or a cartoon character. What’s one vote? In the Salida Union School District, Ivan Wyeth II is leading Steven Cleek by 12 votes. Nine people who wrote in a nonqualified name; their votes don’t count at all.

A venerable voice has been stilled

Frank Burke didn’t need a lot of words, though he was a master of using them. His letters to the editor, well over 100 were published, were often masterpieces of brevity and poignancy. We have a 200-word limit, but he never reached it. Burke passed away on All Saints Day, Nov. 1, at 102. Though he retired from the Stanislaus County Office of Education as director of elementary education in 1975, he remained a powerful influence on education and educators in the region. He taught teachers at CSU Stanislaus into the 1990s, and then he wrote all those letters – education his most frequent topic. He didn’t believe that testing would ever replace a teacher’s insight for judging a student. He didn’t believe poor students got enough help. He urged parents to play stronger roles in their children’s lives. He made each of these points with grace if not charm. His last letter was published Oct. 4, in which he worried that increasing expectations for first-graders would lead to discouragement. A devout Catholic, he prayed every day – “cramming for finals,” he called it. We will miss his voice on these pages.

This story was originally published November 7, 2014 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Our View: Congratulations, winners; now get ready to work."