Better late than never. I had promised commentary on the 2025 District 3 election.  Here it is . . .

Capturing lessons learned is important, because in politics, the past is prologue (Shakespeare, The Tempest).  Following are six takeaways from the 2025 election . . . somewhat of a dog’s breakfast, but here goes . . .

Takeaway #1:  Yancy Was Spared a Historic and Embarrassing Loss Because of Additional Ballot Items. 

Yes, Ike Yancy’s 62-38 defeat was lopsided.  However, Yancy likely would have suffered a much larger margin of defeat but for additional items on the ballot.  The 2025 municipal election vote count was around 5,600.  A typical municipal election—that is, one with only council elections and no additional ballot items—averages about 3,600 votes (about 10% of registered voters) and ranges between 2500 and 4500 votes depending on the number of races and campaign intensity.  Unfortunately, the 2025 campaign was a low-energy affair between two lackluster candidates.  Accordingly, it is reasonable to assume that around 2,500 voters would have cast ballots if the only ballot item was the Jacobus-Yancy match-up.  That means around 3,100 voters were likely drawn to Milton’s polling places because of the (highly contested) Public Service Commission race, the senior exemption ballot initiative, or both.  We can assume these voters are relatively uninformed about municipal politics and therefore the vote differential between Jacobus and Yancy would be narrower with this voter group.  Assuming a generous incumbency advantage of 10% (I normally assume only 5% based on previous elections), Jacobus and Yancy would respectively garner 55% and 45% of these 3,100 low-involvement voters.  Therefore, to achieve the 62%-38% final outcome means that Jacobus would have garnered 70+% of the remaining 2500 voters that would have turned out just for the city council election.  That implies that Yancy would have experienced a historic election defeat only matched by Bill Lusk’s 2017 loss.

Note:  I never believed Yancy had even a remote chance of winning but did not want to dissuade voters from casting ballots with predictions of his demise.

Takeaway #2:  Gimmicks and Trickery Don’t Work.

Yancy’s campaign failed on both a strategic and tactical level . . . so much so that Jacobus’ lame and inauthentic campaign (clearly outsourced to a consultant) appeared brilliant by comparison.  Unfortunately, Yancy seems to have fell under the spell of a few ex-council members and wacko political operatives.  Former council member Laura Bentley pitched especially hard for Mr. Yancy . . . probably to his detriment (as I’ll explain more later).  The skullduggery of Milton’s long-suffering opposition has become tedious and tiresome.  In 2025, Milton’s political malcontents predictably resorted to the same old tricks and gimmicks:  fake candidate forums; sham endorsing organizations; and meaningless PAC endorsements.  Not only are their antics petty and dishonest, but they’re also singularly ineffective.  These clumsy attempts to dupe Milton’s voters have never worked.  Milton’s political tricksters might instead consider respecting the intelligence of Milton’s voters and engaging in honest and thoughtful debate about issues that matter most to citizens.

Takeaway #3:  A Stronger, Independent Candidate Could Have (easily) Defeated Jacobus.

Let’s be honest.  Jan Jacobus is the weakest member of council and that weakness carried over to his campaign.  Jacobus held few meet-and-greets, did not knock on doors, effected no election-day ground game, etc.   Additionally, Jacobus’s record left him dangerously exposed—for example, his inexplicable and inexcusable support for Rick Mohrig in the 2023 election.  Currently, serious issues lurk in Milton’s city government that are not being acknowledged, much less addressed . . . issues that might have been easily and justifiably exploited by Yancy for electoral gain.  Jacobus was supremely beatable; the right challenger could have easily won election.  Ike Yancy was not that challenger.  Yancy’s campaign was doomed from the get-go.  Yancy faced two insurmountable obstacles:  his cluelessness, which I’ve discussed in other blog posts, and his association with discredited former council members (and Milton’s political wackos).  More about the former in Takeaway #4.

Takeaway #4:  Three Strikes . . . You’re Out.  Milton’s Political Factions Should Allow a Worthy Opposition to Emerge in Milton.

Former council member Laura Bentley has emerged as the de facto leader of the opposition (to the current city council). Bentley was Yancy’s strongest backer (although she seemed stingy with her monetary support).  Accordingly, Yancy’s defeat was Bentley’s defeat and, more generally, yet another defeat for Milton’s two long-warring political factions. Since 2021, both factions’ candidates have consistently lost (Tucker, Mohrig, Gordon, Yancy) at the polls or chosen not to run (Bentley, Kunz, Moore) for re-election in the face of strong public opposition and probable defeat. Milton’s factions are batting 0.000

Milton’s political history has been plagued by continuous childish skirmishes between two middle-school-like factions:  Bentley-Moore-Bailey (BMB) vs. Lusk-Kunz-Thurman (LKT).  (For over a decade, Mohrig aligned with the LKT faction–and was despised by the BMB faction–but eventually entered into a bromance with Paul Moore and was backed by both the BMB and LKT factions in his failed 2023 re-election bid.)  Personal and petty disputes took precedence over citizen priorities.  However, beginning with the 2021 election, citizens have repeatedly rejected factional politics. In 2021, council members Bentley and Kunz both exited council. In 2023 Council Member Moore exited council; Council Member Mohrig was defeated; and faction-backed proxy Helen Gordon was defeated. In 2025, BMB’s proxy Yancy was defeated.

Considering Bentley’s pivotal role in the 2025 election, let’s focus on the BMB faction.  In 2021, BMB’s District 1 candidate finished third; Bentley bowed out of her District 2 re-election bid in the face of strong public opposition.  In 2023, the BMB faction (and LKT faction) supported Rick Mohrig’s re-election (District 3); nevertheless, Mohrig only managed to capture 40% of the vote; faction-backed District 1 challenger Helen Gordon lost by an even greater margin (to incumbent Carol Cookerly).  In 2025, BMB’s proxy Ike Yancy captured only 38% of the vote against Jan Jacobus, arguably the weakest incumbent in Milton’s electoral history.  And as discussed in Takeaway #1, the margin of victory would have been much larger but for the presence of other items on the ballot. Clearly, Yancy’s BMB association hurt–and probably doomed–his candidacy.

Let me be blunt.  The discredited BMB and LKT factions need to accept their clear and consistent rejection by voters.  Miltonites obviously want to leave behind the past to focus on the future.  There are serious issues in Milton that need to be debated and resolved.  Unfortunately, the BMB (and LKT) factions are blocking the emergence of a worthy and effective opposition that might expose these issues and offer compelling alternative solutions.  Bentley, et al. would best serve the community by stepping aside to allow a new generation of city leaders to enter the arena.

Takeaway #5:  Yancy’s Candidacy Ironically Undermined His Advocacy About Highway 9 Widening.

Challenger Yancy’s number one issue was the Highway 9 widening project—more specifically, his preference for narrow (4 foot) vs. wide (8 foot) sidewalks.  Go figure!  I’m stupefied that he would make this issue the centerpiece of his campaign.  It is not an issue that can take you to the promised land.  Moreover, Yancy’s obsession with sidewalk widths effectively placed the sidewalk width issue front-and-center on the ballot.  The city council election, in part, was made a referendum on Highway 9 sidewalk widths.  Accordingly, Yancy’s lopsided loss could reasonably be inferred to be a vote for wider sidewalks.  Even most (all but one) precincts encompassing Highway 9 rejected Mr. Yancy.  So irony of ironies, Yancy (unwittingly) hurt the cause he most cares about.

Note:  To his credit, Mr. Yancy has been a frequent and loud critic of the Highway 9 project, bringing much needed scrutiny to a sometimes troubled project.  For this, he deserves plaudits from citizens.  Hopefully, Yancy will continue to serve as a citizen watchdog for the Highway 9 project . . . although he likely needs to avoid the issue of sidewalk widths to maintain credibility.

Takeaway #6:  Council Should Not Interpret the Election Outcome as a Mandate or Endorsement

The current city council might be tempted to interpret Jacobus’ lopsided election win as a mandate, a rousing endorsement of their record, or both.  It was neither, and it would be a (big) mistake to assume otherwise.  Citizens were faced with an unappetizing choice between two unpalatable candidates . . . they unenthusiastically chose the better of the two.  That’s the long-and-short-of-it.  Based on the above discussion, Jacobus’ election (or more accurately, Yancy’s non-election) might best be interpreted as a rejection of Milton’s factions, which Yancy represented, rather than a loving embrace of the current council.  If any policy conclusions are to be drawn from the election, I would suggest citizens endorsed 1) the current Highway 9/Deerfield (renewal) master plan, which even Yancy supports, and 2) wider (vs. narrower) sidewalks along Highway 9.

Rather than patting themselves on the back, council would be well-advised to work on creating and executing a positive agenda for Milton’s future.  Unfortunately, for the past two years, the current council has had to expend much time, money, and effort on cleaning up messes from previous councils (particularly the 2022-23 council).  The biggest of these messes has been the Chang case.

Most importantly—and I cannot overemphasize this—the current council needs to understand that Milton will forever wallow in problems of its own making if it does not devote more attention to good governance . . . my passion since I began my advocacy 10+ years ago.  Good governance relates to HOW policy gets made and implemented.  Process and principles are essential to good policy outcomes.  Council must redouble its commitment to the core elements of good governance: accountability, fairness, rigor, responsiveness, integrity, transparency, and respect for the rule of law.  Good governance is not accomplished through window dressing: meaningless resolutions and the collection of phony awards.  Rather, council must focus on fundamentally reforming the architecture of local government and implementing better processes and procedures that incorporate the elements of good governance.

Advocating For Good Governance,

Tim

Note: I am currently writing a blog post on former council member Laura Bentley. Because Bentley has become the de facto leader of the opposition (to Milton’s current council), it is important for citizens to better understand Ms. Bentley and her politics. This is especially important because of Ms. Bentley’s lack of written documentation of her current political positions, thus requiring reliance on other sources of information, particularly Ms. Bentley’s four-year record while on council.

More importantly, the rise and subsequent fall of Ms. Bentley as a political influencer is the most important thread in the story of Milton’s politics over the past decade. In fact, it is impossible to understand Milton’s politics without understanding the arc of Ms. Bentley’s political career.