Year in review: Local and national elections take center stage

Well, at least it’s over.

That was the likely reaction of many U.S. voters when the polls finally closed on Tuesday Nov. 5 and the winners of the vast majority of races were declared by that night or early Wednesday morning. When the curtain came down on Election 2024, so did an assault on the public’s attention and consciousness, with ceaseless TV and radio advertisements, interminable robocalls, emails and texts touting candidates and begging for “emergency” donations — all drenched in a common feeling of apprehension and dread over “the most important election of our lifetime.” Well, at least since the last one. Or was it the one before?

Through it all, voters endured campaigns from the municipal level to the presidency filled with attacks that weren’t merely negative but deeply mean-spirited and divisive, underscored by contemptible lies and topped by one presidential candidate calling his opponent, “trash,” “sick” and “depraved,” while the other insisted he was “unstable,” “unhinged” and “a fascist.”

The local and regional elections were, for the most part, far less vitriolic, with Republican incumbents U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota and state Sen. Anthony Palumbo holding serve, while Democrat Tommy John Schiavoni was chosen to replace long-serving Independent Fred Thiele in the state Assembly, where he will join incumbent Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio of Riverhead who was elected to a third term. We wish them all well — and given the often overlooked and under-appreciated reality that state, municipal and regional politicians have a far greater practical impact on their constituents’ day-to-day lives than their federal counterparts, we will do our part to hold them accountable as their terms begin this month.

On the national level, there are also some hopeful signs. The losing candidate for the presidency, Vice President Kamala Harris, quickly accepted the results and made a gracious concession speech. President Joe Biden invited president-elect Donald Trump to the White House for a meeting a week after the election.

At the very least, that’s a welcome — and much needed — change from last time, when the losing candidate refused to accept defeat and insisted — without credible evidence — that the free and fair election had been rigged against him.

Those norms of accepting defeat, offering congratulations and pledging assistance to the victor — which have been foundational to the success American democracy for two and half centuries — appear to be back on track. At least for now.

Here’s to a new era in American political life. We live in hope.