New energy may be what the Valley needs

Nobody likes to lose an election.

Candidates pitch to hold local offices and serve on boards — often as volunteers — because they feel they have important contributions to make. They want to be difference-makers, enact change, bring new perspectives and present fresh ideas. You’ve heard the slogans.

For every winner after the votes are tallied, there are losers as well. Sometimes great candidates fall short because they failed to get their messages across, ran into the buzz saw of an organized, well-heeled opponent or simply were bested by another great candidate. Sometimes it is just time for a change.

Seems to be that time for the Mat-Su Borough, especially its board of education, which saw a pair of longtime incumbents fall to upstarts. Whether these new public servants bring a new perspective — as promised — or baggage from their political backers — as is already being alleged — remains to be seen.

We’d like to think that whatever their political leanings, the newcomers will bring enthusiasm and commitment to their new posts. Time and time again, new board and council members have found once they become acclimated to their new roles that circumstances are not quite what was imagined when they were on the outside looking in.

Decisions second-guessed by candidates are better understood by the new occupants of those seats. What may have been an unpleasant “status quo” to a candidate can prove a difficult reality one must live with as a new board member.

Tuesday’s vote is also a lesson that, while an incumbent has the advantage of experience and name recognition, victory is not guaranteed. There is still much to be said for outworking an opponent. We hope the gloom-and-doom predictions put forth by some sore losers is simple venting of post-election frustrations, perhaps not unlike the reactions that greeted their own elections years earlier.

Until we see evidence to the contrary, we allow each of Tuesday’s new board and council winners to embrace their new responsibilities with a clean slate, a clear conscience and a can-do attitude that will reaffirm our electoral process. We also hope those who didn’t win will throw their considerable talents into other worthwhile efforts for their communities.

That’s what makes the Mat-Su Valley a great place to live.