Here in Ward 2, the candidate our family was supporting for Alderman, Frank Douglass, won handily with a final tally of 358-172.

The New Haven Independent reports that Frank’s opponent, Doug Bethea, plans to switch his party allegiance to Independent and run against Frank again in the General Election two months from now.

Part of me hopes that doesn’t happen. Elections can be draining affairs, and one hopes that the wheels will not have to be set in motion again so soon. Is two years from now not soon enough?

Journalistically, though, I notice that a number of the candidates (including Bethea) who received support from Mayor DeStefano’s City Hall and who were defeated last night announced that they’d be changing their affiliation and running in November. Is this losers’ bravado, or could it be a grander DeStefano-machine strategy?

Many of the victors in the aldermanic races last night were backed by local unions. The brouhaha over that has barely begun from those who seek to paint these unions as anything other than community-based organizers. City Hall could foment quite an anti-union backlash in eight weeks if they chose to, giving their “Independent” pals a leg up.

But painting this as Unions vs. City Hall would be grossly misrepresentative of what really happened on the streets this past summer, as least as I saw it in Ward 2. Let’s leave aside the fact that the unions and Mayor DeStefano have lots in common philosophically and just consider the concept of one managerial monolith against another.

While the union was unquestionably a major presence in the campaign in terms of organization, management and volunteer help, the Ward 2 choice came down to individuals, not to work cultures or political theorizing.

I was not interested in Frank Douglass for his union affiliations; nor were many of the neighbors I spoke to. Ultimately, an alderman will be answerable to his neighborhood, not to any grander entity. For my vote, Frank was the better candidate to do the immediate job of representing our neighborhood at regular City Hall meetings, and of listening to his neighbors daily. This ward has a history of voting out alderpersons who skirt their duties, and it doesn’t matter whether City Hall, unions or God is stumping for them.

What happened Tuesday won’t matter if the newly anointed candidates don’t do the specific jobs they were elected to do. Which is why I hope that some of the losers don’t go skulking away with their tails between their legs. Living to fight another day is something that New Haven politicians don’t do particularly well. Folks lose one race and they never run again. Frank Douglass is one of a few you can point to who came back—he lost by a smattering of votes to Gina Calder in Ward 2 four years ago, was elected Ward Co-Chair two years ago, and (beyond the considerable union support) knew how to build a strong, community-based campaign this time around.

In the mayoral race, Jeffrey Kerekes has been prepared all along to switch to Independent and run further in November if he didn’t win yesterday’s primary. I have a months-old door-knob flier of his, and it has both the primary and general election dates printed on it. He’s been looking at the big picture all along.

And he did well yesterday—not “surprisingly well” or “alarmingly well”; genuinely, credibly well in the sense that there were no sensational stunts on his part, or egregious stumbles on the part of the incumbent, and an impressive number of voters seem to be grasping Kerekes’ decidedly unsexy numbers-conscous, no-nonsense message.

Though I do have trepidations about too many of these alderman squabbles entering a new phase, I do fervently hope that everyone who ran and lost yesterday runs again, especially on the mayoral level. We had three strong contenders this year, who will only get stronger if they see this as a long-range, multi-year concern and not as a one-time thing. DeStefano’s had serious challengers before, including some deep-pocketed Republicans, but none serious enough to run against him more than once.

I don’t want to give the impression that I’m totally anti-DeStefano. I’m not. He’s implemented a number of progressive, creative programs that many mayors would never conceive of doing. He did a fine job managing the city through the natural disasters of wintertime blizzards and summertime hurricans. Verbally, he eschews bluster.

But democracy is good for the soul, and leaders should be tested. Let’s be in this for the long haul.