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Political pendulum swings in new direction

Published 3:37pm Wednesday, November 7, 2012

As vote tallies came to a completion Tuesday night it became increasingly evident the local political sentiment had swung in a new direction from 2008.

With a total of 15,288 registered voters in Polk County, 10,542 or 68.96 percent cast ballots in this election. Among those voters were 2,960 straight ticket Republican voters and 2,516 Democrats voting straight tickets.

In 2008, area ballots mounted to give Republican candidate John McCain Polk County’s vote. Mitt Romney captured the county this election but what changed was the way people voted for local seats.

Four years ago Polk County offered Democrat commissioner candidates a sweep of open seats voting Ray Gasperson, Renée McDermott and Cindy Walker to the commission.

This year it was Republicans who grabbed votes of confidence.

Fueled by months of debate over the Unified Development Ordinance and the Mountain Ridgeline Protection Ordinance, Republicans took an advantage with voters concerned about property rights.