Republicans buoyed by Competitive Election

The Washington Times reports this morning the glory of competitive races in the November General election:

In Ward 3, where Republicans ran one of their strongest candidates, voter turnout appeared to be lower than in 2002, but the number of residents voting Republican appeared to increase.
Prep school teacher Theresa Conroy received 28 percent of the vote against Democrat candidate Mary M. Cheh, a law professor at George Washington University.
Mrs. Conroy's campaign was buoyed by Ward 3 Democrats who crossed party lines because of Mrs. Cheh's support for development plans in Northwest neighborhoods.
Mrs. Conroy raised more than $31,600 and received about 400 more votes than the 2002 Republican candidate, Eric Rojo.
"I thought it was very heartening that many Democrats crossed party lines to vote for me," said Mrs. Conroy, 54. "Many of the Democrats did say 'I've never voted for a Republican in my life.' "

So according to this article, there were about 400 "crossover democrats" if one uses the 2002 result as an indicator. This 400 votes would represent the tiny, vocal "anti-development" group that has caused an excess of lost opportunities for economic expansion in Ward 3. This is obviously not a scientific conclusion, but the numbers are the numbers.

In my opinion, the contested ANC write-in races will demonstrate a better barometer of this point of view.