Anyone having interesting local elections?

[LeftishBrit]

We don't have any in Oxford this year; but the results overall could give an interesting clue to the state of the parties.

[True Blue American]

1. 4 school levies

All failed by wide margins. After Republicans gutted school funding to give money to both Governors friends Charity Schools.

[KPN]

2. Yes. Local school board election mid-May here wherer I live. Three progressives against

three book banners, lgbtq haters, and public education detractors -- not to mention "good" christians! It's a big one for our small town.

[murielm99]

3. This:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217800396

[LeftishBrit]

4. I was really referring to the large number of local council elections today in the UK

About 8000 council seats are up, and the Tories are likely to experience heavy losses (touch wood!)

But interesting to hear about American local elections. We have some nutty candidates too:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/rogues-gallery-12-controversial-candidates-29866531

[Celerity]

5. +1

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Not particularly; a neighbouring council found out what happens when a candidate dies on the day

They have to suspend the election for that ward:

A candidate in Southampton's local elections has died suddenly on polling day, the city council has said.

Voting has been suspended in Coxford ward following the death of Conservative councillor Graham Galton on Thursday morning.
...
Southampton City Council said, with the poll abandoned, no verification or count would happen for Coxford ward and a new poll would be held within 35 working days.

Votes already cast will not be counted.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-65487139

Eastleigh, where I am, was already almost total Lib Dem, and remains so. I don't think swing figures from here would be meaningful.

[T_i_B]

7. Sheffield: City and Parish council elections

No overall control and very little change on the city council. In my ward the Liberal Democrats held despite Labour throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the ward. Including a few shadow cabinet ministers visiting to campaign and I even had Sheffield City Region mayor Oliver Coppard knock on my door! (I've known Coppard since childhood and we don't get on so that was a heck of an awkward conversation for both of us!)

However, the real bombshell was dropped this morning. Following a damming report about the council's disastrous handling of tree felling a few years ago (linked to a PFI deal for street maintenance) the leader of Sheffield Labour on the city council has been removed and Sheffield Labour have been put into special measures by Keir Starmer!

With Labour the largest group on the City Council this means that the council is effectively going to be run from Labour HQ in Millbank, not Sheffield.

[T_i_B]

8. Oh, and at the Parish level....

....Lib Dems won every Parish seat they stood for in Sheffield area!

Labour put up a full slate of candidates where I live but only won 3 out of 15 seats. The rumour is that they did this to stop a particular Labour City councillor from running for Parish as he was such a disaster when he ran the Parish Council a few years ago!

[LeftishBrit]

9. Results are fairly satisfying for non-Tories!

Tories lost over 1000 Council seats!

Nearby, the LibDems won control of South Oxfordshire and Vale of the White Horse District Councils; Tories lost overall control of Cherwell; they had already lost overall control of West Oxfordshire last year, but they lost even more seats now, and the LibDems are now the largest party.

To put all this into perspective, Oxfordshire outside the city of Oxford used to be super-safe Tory. West Oxfordshire is basically David Cameron's former constituency of Witney.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. One council with results against the grain, due to local events: Leicester

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Leicester_City_Council_election

In March, Labour's national operation de-selected 19 sitting Labour councillors. Some of this stems from the Hindu-Muslim unrest there recently, and associated support of BJP/Modi in India (see eg https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/oct/14/huge-swing-tories-local-byelection-leicester-area-unrest-north-evington ). But some of it (I am told by a Labour activist in the city, who "went on strike" in his words, not doing any election work for the party in the first time in decades) looked like score-settling (meaning, I think, against Corbynites). Some of those de-selected switched to Independent, at least 2 to Conservative ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-65070967 ), and stood in the elections.

The result was the non-Tory vote was often split, and they've gone from
2019 result: 53 Labour, 1 Lib Dem
2023 pre-election, post-de-selection: 36 Labour, 5 Con, 1 Lib Dem, 1 Green, 11 Independent
to
2023 post-election: 31 Labour, 17 Con, 3 Lib Dem, 3 Green

So they hung on to their majority, but at some cost.

(A commentary from the left of the party: https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2023-03-26/behind-labours-purge-leicester-councillors , which, although in "Workers' Liberty", thinks the de-selections for reasons other than BJP support weren't so much anti-Corbyn, as "the Labour Mayor has personal beefs with them" )