Lessons from the Losing Side

Let's face the undeniable fact right up front: Mike Mock is a loser.

So is Temolynn Wintons.

Both big losers.

And add Renee Shiver Griffin to the list.

One, two, three strikes you're out, and there's goes the ball game.

As harsh as this all sounds, there's a lesson to be learned by starting at the lowest point of the discussion and working upwards.

All three, Mock, Wintons and Griffin, failed to win their contests in last month's primary election. But in doing so, each left behind an important virtue that each of us would be wise to emulate.

For Griffin, it was persistence.

After losing a razor-thin contest for Clerk of Courts four years ago to Marcia Johnson, by fewer votes than you can count on one hand, Griffin entered the private sector and bided her time.

When Supervisor of Elections Doris Shiver Gibbs stepped down this past summer as the county's longest-serving constitutional officer, Griffin saw her chance to return to public service and threw her hat in the ring against Ida Cooper Elliott, a longtime veteran assistant in the elections office.

Now how it all ended up is history, with Elliott earning a hard-fought win and now set to embark on what promises to be a fine tenure supervising elections.

But Griffin proved a formidable adversary, and brought to the campaign a bushel full of fresh ideas for generating excitement and further boosting voter registration.

Most of all, she embodied the virtue of persistence, even when the odds are against you, even after you've lost a heartbreaking campaign by a mere handful of votes.

That willingness to battle against long odds, and not to give up, was shown by Wintons as well, in her bid for the Democratic nomination for school superintendent.

She fell short, but what she showed was the virtue of passion.

Throughout the campaign, at every public forum and in every private encounter with voters, Wintons brought a remarkable energy and enthusiasm to the campaign.

At times she would sing out a lyric about all of us being in this together, and at other times, she would step out from the cautious mask of careful politicking and speak the hard but necessary truths about the Franklin County schools.

Hers was a campaign of passion, of excitement, and if it could be bottled, the three candidates would be wise to stock up on a case or two of Wintons' finest as they rev up their campaigns for the highly coveted superintendent job.

As important as persistence and passion are, Mock, the only incumbent officeholder among the three losing candidates, brought an immensely important virtue to his service, and that has been integrity.

For four years, Mock brought to the task of sheriff an unquestioned honesty in his dealings that will illuminate the terrain long after he steps down as the county's chief law enforcement officer.

Mock set out to have an impact on the county's deplorable drug problem, and his stepped-up enforcement clearly has had an effect.

Now his methods have not always been popular, and some questioned the propriety of engaging in a highly visible and public manner of arrest.

In addition, some took issue with whether he had trimmed back the budget sufficiently, and others were unhappy at high-profile arrests that they saw as erroneous.

A sheriff will always face these type of questions, and voters made their choice in the primary election. Both Skip Shiver and Bruce Barnes are able men who could step into Mock's shoes and perform well.

But when they do so, they would be wise to make sure those shoes follow along in the general direction of the path blazed by Mock.

A path marked by an unflinching willingness to make arrests even when they weren't always popular, and to avidly pursue the unwholesome but necessary task of diminishing the scourge of drugs that threatens to sap the vitality of a promising young generation.

In his term of office, Mock went about his duty to enforce the law with unquestioned integrity, and the county should be grateful for that service.

Losing is difficult but it is no great shame.

Not to have tried to live up to your responsibility would have been inexcusable, and that was certainly not the case with Mock.