Andrew Wylie is the new Clinton County District Attorney, the first Democrat to hold that office in quite a while. Clinton County is a fairly large county of 83,000 people with about half of the population living in the City and Town of Plattsbugh (legally separate entities). While the Clinton County Democrats have worked hard over the past few years to increase the number of registered Democratic voters and we now have a slight majority, Democrats still do not turn out at the rate of Republicans.

How then did we win the election? There were many factors that lead to the Democratic victory in this relatively rural county that for all intents of purpose is strongly divided between Democrats and Republicans. Let's list some of them:

• We strategized and planned
• Our team worked at the Grassroots level, knocked doors, called voters, and had signs out all over
• Kevin Duniho of the City Democrats and Tom Wood of Town of Plattsburgh Democrats did much to get the voters out on election day
• We had positions that made moral sense
• Cantwell was a jerk and made many political mistakes himself
• Anti-President Bush sentiment helped Democrats win elections all over

It is exciting to see the Democratic Party build itself around these parts. We are becoming relevant against an old Republican machine that is increasingly inept as witnessed with the Richard Cantwell candidacy. The work done by the North County Democracy for America at the grassroots level is amazing, as is their deep connections with the local Democratic Party.

Our party is young here. We made some bad mistakes and should have done better. With all the errors and troubles we suffered we almost should have lost the race, but by god's dear grace and the wisdom of people who saw through Richard Cantwell's rhethoric and voted for good government over a District Attorney who put ideology ahead of common sense. Some our campaign's weaknesses where:

• Lack of volunteer power except at the phonebanks
• Wylie's tendency not to delegate responsibility and to micromanage (he had no offical campaign manager, volunteer manager though people ultimately took up those titles informally without his input)
• General disorder in his campaign
• Poor personal skills on television and blunders speaking

Wylie was not a professional politician, unlike Cantwell who was. Over the last couple of weeks after the election he got a lot better. His victory speech was amazing. A similiar trend was seen in the rest of his campaign as we learned from our mistakes. Things got a lot better organized and we found ways to communicate together. We did it.

Andrew Wylie's race may not be the biggest or most important race we will face in Clinton County. The District Attorney while important in both protecting our civil liberties and safety, has relatively minor legislative power to great bold new initiatives beyond law enforcement. We have bigger races to fight. Wylie is a start, and he's a great leader for our party in Clinton County. We will do it, and we will change Plattsburgh and Clinton County in the near future!