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HOME	CLASSIFIEDS	OBITUARIES	SPORTS	OPINION

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Elections Produce Winners, Stories

By Rory McClannahan
Mountain View Telegraph
    Tuesday was election day in the East Mountains and Estancia Valley.
    Edgewood will have a new mayor and Moriarty, Estancia and Mountainair have new council members.
    For political junkies, and most journalists are political junkies, election day is like Super Bowl Sunday. It's the culmination of long conversations in the newsroom about who will win and what factors are played out in an election.
    Some things are guaranteed to occur during every campaign cycle. For instance, candidates will always complain about campaign signs being vandalized, accusations of impropriety will always be made and voting never seems to go as smoothly as everyone hopes.
    But elections are full of surprises, too.
    The first election I covered was when I was a bright-eyed intern at the Journal. That night— it was a primary election— I was tasked to be a runner, who is essentially a person who carries incoming election results from the teletype machine to the reporters or editors covering the different races.
    As luck would have it, one reporter called in saying his wife was having a baby, and he wouldn't make it in.
    So I got the call from the dugout and was soon on the mound covering a state Legislature race I knew nothing about. It was a great, scary night.
    A couple of years later was an election night that will live in infamy among those who were there. That was the night we got the "Big Sandwich." Election nights in a newsroom mean that food will be brought in. Usually the food of choice is pizza, but that year we got a couple of long sub sandwiches.
    The food was delicious and all the newsroom crew had full bellies as returns started trickling in. It was the calm before the storm.
    The next day, around noon I think, the effects of election night began to strike. Some still say it was a flu bug that was going around. For the record, the cause of the illness has never been satisfactorily determined. I think it was the food. For me, it started as a cold sweat and a gurgling in my stomach. I had a story to write and ran to the drug store to get anti-nausea medicine.
    By three o'clock, it was obvious what was going on. The newsroom was decimated, about half the staff called in sick and those of us stupid enough to hang around spent a lot of time with our heads on our desks and in frequent trips to the facilities.
    There are many more election stories out there, but never enough space to write them. It's indicative of our culture where we value competition, and anyone who has competed knows the fun of talking about the game.
    The next election will be in June when Democrats and Republicans choose their candidates for state offices. Then, of course, the biggie in November when we decide on a new president.
    Sounds like there may be some new stories in the making.
    Contact Rory McClannahan at 823-7102 or online at editor@mvtelegraph.com.
    FOR THE RECORD
    A photo caption in the Feb. 28 Telegraph contained incorrect information that misidentified the owners of Rocking Horse Ranch. The owners of the Rocking Horse Ranch are Lonnie and Patty Wright.