Bill Matt

I've had a lot of time to decompress and do some soul searching after the election loss in November. I feel like I did not campaign hard enough, and in retrospect know a few things I should have done differently during the campaign.

I hit City Hall like a raging bull. I wasn't thoughtful enough, and I spoke too freely, making enemies of some strong political people. I spoke my mind, and as most successful politicians do, didn't hold my tongue when I should have. I also got dragged into some tough political fights that were not even mine. The camera issue, one I really supported not because Virg proposed it but because I have seen the power of technology and it really works, I supported. I would have supported it if Carol Wood had proposed it because it made good sense to me. The electorate was pretty evenly split on it, but Wood used it as a political football, and hung Virg around my neck like an anchor. The Wood Bernero split was one I couldn't straddle. Derrick Quinney did a masterful job of supporting both but siding with neither. In this election, where Wood had no real opponent, I was running against the most popular incumbent and my challenger.

I also got wind of a couple issues early, and much to my chagrin, and evidence of my naivety, I talked to Brian Jeffries about them. Both issues came up, but he preempted my early knowledge, and guided my opponent to score political points on both the Hunters Ridge development, and the Lewton/Averill Cell Tower issues. Though I knew of them early and supported the residents in both cases, both Jeffries and Robinson scored points and made contacts from them as well.

And on and on and on. A few other simple slips on the campaign front and I was finished.

I really felt it slipping away about a week before the election so I wasn't at all surprised. I had a very aggressive opponent, one that was politically savvy and didn't take stands on issues that could hurt her; I had the Wood-Jeffries cabal actively working against me and for my opponent; I had lost the support of my own neighborhood association president since Wood was whispering in her ear; I had the immediate past Council member Randy Williams campaigning against me; both the FOP and LSJ endorsed my opponent. So as I said, I wasn't surprised and in retrospect I haven't been terribly disappointed either. I have really enjoyed and appreciate the time I have with my young family even more. The job was a grind, really a major time drain. I can sit on boards I have more of an interest in, and the politics are not so serious.

The hardest thing about losing was not even that I lost.

The hardest thing was the toll it took, however temporarily, on my oldest son Nicholas. Nick is 9 years old. He was and is very politically astute and aware. He spend a few days going door to door with me. He saved pictures of my campaign literature because he was so proud. Nick was old enough to understand losing, whereas my other two boys only knew that suddenly, dad was around all the time, and that was great! Nick felt like the loss was a personal rejection of his dad, and that in turn was hard on me. He said things like "A'lynne Robinson ran us out of town". Parents know how bad it feels to disappoint your kids. He said little about the loss, but I could see him run through the stages of a loss. Shock, disbelief, denial, anger, and finally acceptance. I did my best to console him, and made a point of going out in public right away with him, despite the fact that I felt like staying home. I had nothing to be ashamed of and neither did he. So now his dad is a former council member, and he understands now that that is better than being a council member.

Labels: A'Lynne Robinson, Carol Wood, election, lansing city council