An Important Lesson To Be Learned: Shore Area Democrats Didn't Need To Compromise Beliefs or Principles To Get Elected

It’s been a week since Election Day has come and gone, and while looking over some of the results the other day I stumbled across an interesting tidbit that was intriguing to me. After opting to endorse Governor Christie and the Republican Freeholder ticket rather than support Barbara Buono and the Monmouth County Democratic candidates, the Spring Lake Democrats took a huge beating last Tuesday at the polls.

The Spring Lake Democrats endorse the opposing party's candidates for Governor and Freeholder because they believed it was going to help their local candidates win (at least that’s what they told the Monmouth County Democrats). Interesting enough though, the 3 towns neighboring Spring Lake - Manasquan, Belmar and Spring Lake Heights all elected Democrats locally even though Governor Christie won their towns by the same margin that he won Spring Lake.

Manasquan, Belmar and Spring Lake Heights all supported the Monmouth County Democratic ticket, they chose not to compromise their beliefs or principles and were still able to win. They worked with the opposing party when they had to and didn't cut a political deals with Republicans to benefit themselves. They knew they were doing what was right for their constituents and recognized that they had more in common with their party's platform than the opposing party's.

There is an important  lesson  to be learned here; you can stick to your principles, be bipartisan, work on legislation that is important and beneficial to all without compromising your beliefs or getting in bed with the opposition by cutting deals to help your own electoral prospects.

Spring Lake took the opposite path from Manasquan, Belmar and Spring Lake Heights and voters saw through it.