I witnessed this first-hand in the past week, as a steady stream of people stopped by Campaign Headquarters to tell us how they’d known we’d win and how they’d supported us all along.

By my informal reckoning, if everyone who said they were behind us had actually voted, then the turnout would have been about three times what it actually was.

I am reminded of a story a friend told me. He’d run and lost a couple of times for City Council. He said that if everyone who stopped by to tell him they voted for him had actually done so, he’d have won the elections handily.

I was somewhat amazed at the number of people who suddenly wanted to help in the days following the election. I’ve taken their names and numbers, but there’s nothing to do right now but wait until fall to work on the General Election.

One man was put out with this logic. “But I want to volunteer right now.” I asked if he could help us beginning October 1st. “No, I won’t be able to help then. But I can help right now.”

I can only hope he won’t hold it against us, but there was nothing for him to do right now. We had just won the election with 63 percent of the vote. All we need to finish up right now is writing thank-you letters and cleaning up. So far I haven’t found anyone wanting to help clean up.

It was quite gratifying to win this election. People were astounded at the numbers. It was a good combination. My friend is a great candidate. We had a good number of great workers. And the voters were sincerely ready for a serious change in the local leadership. These things combined to give us a victory.

There seems to be a really strong sense of unity and hope in the town. The people were disturbed by the way things were, and their hope is that the town is now headed for better days. Hopefully this positive energy will remain in place long enough to actually start making some of the positive things happen.

For my part, I have met a lot of good folks in my old hometown of Macon, Ga. I’ve had the chance to renew some old friendships as well. All are equally intrigued and excited by the turn of events, which resulted in this election victory.

One of the precinct workers said he thought his neighborhood was going downhill. But after walking to every house on his street and meeting a lot of his neighbors for the first time, he decided that maybe things weren’t so bad after all.

I say that winning the election was a mighty sweet thing after all the hard work. But the really best part was seeing the town come together. The people are the winners this time. A little bit of America was reborn.

(Editor’s Note: Write David Clark at P.O. Box 148, Cochran, GA 31014, or email him at dclark@outofthesky.com.).