I probably shouldn't be writing this right now.

I'm tired. The Boy found his way into our bed Monday night, which means no one sleeps well except for The Boy. And here it is 11:56 p.m. on the next night, Election night. My mind is baked and tired, but still a little wired from trailing candidates from party-to-party-to-party.

And I didn't even run for anything.

Still, something happened last night that's worth writing about before it slips out of my compromised brain. A baton was passed--or more accurately wrenched away--from the folks who have been helping to run the city and it was handed to folks who want to help to run this city a bit differently than their predecessors.

How else can you explain Kathleen O'Connor Ives? I mean, she moved to town six months ago. She applied to sit on a few city board but never heard a response so she opted to run for City Council. But what should have been a coming out party. a campaign that introduced a potential future leader to the folks of Newburyport, will result in a swearing in ceremony in January.

I doubt any of the 2054 people who voted for her had even heard her name before she moved to town (with the exception of her husband Jeff). But they saw enough in her to put her on the city council.

That's got to be unprecedented. Six months?

Closer to home, Ed Cameron managed to unseat Erford Fowler, a long-time fixture on the City Council and--in my meetings with him--a very nice gentlemen who spoke for a lot of people in this town.

Shortly after announcing Ed and Susanne came over our house for a neighborly get together. I'd only met Ed once before on our first Halloween night so I didn't know him well. I recall sitting at our dining room table, saying, "Erford is going to be tough," and thinking, "Well, I at least hope it will be close." Yet, last night Ed drew 554 votes to Erford's 438.

I'm not surprised yet I am.

Then voters turned away former mayors Mary Carrier and Al Lavender in favor of Tom Jones, Donna Holaday, Barry Connell and Steve Hutcheson. Frankly, I forget who the progressives or the conservatives are. I know they're in there. (By Mary Eaton's measure the progressives and "in the middle' candidates won the day, with the exception of Gary Roberts. More than a few folks last night said he'll be sorely missed.)

But the fact that well meaning and once popular folks like Carrier and Lavender couldn't defeat an Ives is telling.

Things are changing. This isn't meant to denigrate the people who have run things in the past. Newburyport is a wonderful place largely because of their service. But we may have found the tipping point where newcomers--like myself--and change-minded resident are forming a majority that is willing to listen even more closely to new voices, some brand new voices.

This is a good thing.

Congrats to all the candidates. Those that worked hard and won, and those that worked hard and lost. It's easy to forget that people running for office are, in fact, people. They put a great deal of work into this effort, sacrificing time with family, in order to try to make a difference. By next week we'll forget many of their names because they didn't win. But they do deserve credit for stepping forward and wanting to serve.

Also, thanks to those who did serve but didn't get re-elected.

More on how the poll results matched up against the actual results tomorrow or rather later today. I actually think we did pretty well.