THAT’S DEBATABLE:

What was the most significant thing you learned about Orange County’s political future in this month’s election?

We learned that times, they are a changin’. Orange County is no longer the ultimate bastion of Republican politics.

With 17% of Newport Beach Republicans casting their ballots for Barack Obama, we learned that people are paying attention and that political persuasion is trumped by competence, hope and rejection of fear-mongering.

We learned that the voters of Orange County really are seeking a change and are rejecting the politics of the past eight years for the promise of a better America.

We learned that the past eight years have been undeniably bad for America.

We learned that Democrats can carry areas of Orange County that surprise everyone and that Barack carried the 48th Congressional (represented by John Campbell), Irvine, Costa Mesa, Anaheim, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Laguna Hills and Laguna Beach together with the traditional central Orange County Democratic areas.

We knew going in that the demographics and voter patterns were changing; it was no fluke that the Democratic Party of Orange County registered 59,896 new voters in the past 21 months while the Republicans were losing 2,299 registered voters countywide.

We learned it feels good to be a Democrat in Orange County.

Frank Barbaro

Orange County Democratic Party chairman

Nearly 360,000 O.C. Democrats voted in the general election. President-elect Obama captured more than 535,000 votes in the county. That means more than 175,000 Republicans and decline-to-state independents voted for Obama. That is about roughly a 100,000-vote shift at the top of the ticket from the 2004 election.

This voting shift did not spread to down-ticket races, however. For example, in the 48th District congressional race, 20% of the people who voted for conservative Rep. John Campbell also voted for Obama. Thus, there was no ideological shift. Rather, the electoral showing of Obama reflects a public that grew weary of President Bush, the Iraq war, and an ever- increasing federal budget, along with an intensified concern about the economy.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter was elected president. Sixteen years later, Bill Clinton was elected president. After Carter and Clinton, there was an economic backlash to failed liberal policies, and the GOP reemerged within two years in each instance. The same will occur again because liberal policies of protecting people from cradle to grave inevitably fail and Americans will want change that solves problems. That change will be in the form of limited government policies that provide real solutions for Americans.

Scott Baugh

Orange County Republican Party chairman