If one were to sniff around on the ground in Baldwin County they would find:
1. Pittman and company outworked the McKinney camp.
2. Chris Brown clearly did a better job than Swatex. Maybe Chris will share voter turnout secrets for a SPECIAL ELECTION.
3. There may have been some backlash to the gov’s involvement.

Again, eliminate 1,2 &3 and Pittman still wins. The eastern shore owns the Baldwin County senate seat.

18% is actually pretty respectable turnout for a special election. Most people just don’t track on a single race for state legislature, so getting your supporters to the polls is the whole enchilada in these elections. Pittman obviously motivated his voters to turn out.

Open your eyes folks! The Republicans run Baldwin County today and look at their record: massive tax increases, environmental degradation, un-regulated growth, insurance rates through the roof, etc. If you want more of the same then vote the same, but if you want change, vote for AJ COOPER October 16th.

http://www.coopersenate32.com

1) Pittman lives on the Eastern Shore (Fairhope-Daphne-Spanish Fort) which is the most
populous area of the county. McKinney lives by the beach. This election was all about who
could win support in Fairhope and in central areas of the county, where the first primary
losers were strongest. Pittman closed the deal. He ran a better campaign, and was perceived
to have momentum, having come from nowhere to finish second in the first primary.

2) There’s a scandal over how properties are appraised that’s roiling Baldwin politics right
now. Some of the fallout is landing on Riley because of the change to annual appraisals,
although in reality, the root of what’s wrong with Baldwin’s property tax system is in the
appraisal methods, not how often property is appraised. But Riley’s endorsement may have hurt
McKinney more than it helped.

3) Pittman comes off as much more gregarious and likeable. McKinney is cautious and sort of
reserved out in public.

4) There is some latent environmentalist, or at least anti-development sentiment among
a surprisingly large number of Baldwin GOP voters. McKinney was seen as the willing tool of
the tourism-industrial machine that’s created a condo canyon on the beach. The county’s just
growing too fast for the taste of many people, especially longtime residents. They’re
conservative, but small-c, hate-change conservative.

5) And yes, I’m sure AEA was poisoning whatever wells it could find against McKinney. Lest
you forget, AEA does dabble in Republican politics, especially in solidly Republican areas.

Stu, are you talking about the white ‘P’ with gold in the middle and surrounded by purple that some users see in the address bar right before the “http://www.politicalparlor.net?” (Is that gold? Or greenish gold?)

Those colors were chosen because they are the same colors used on the website (for example in the header and the “Posts from the Legislature” box in the right sidebar). I think the colors were a bit more prominent in the old design of the website.

And fwiw, not all users see the ‘P’ in the address bar. I don’t think Internet Explorer shows it (I know some versions don’t), but if they bookmark the site, I think it shows up in their bookmarks.