It is easy to figure out the obvious winners and losers of an election from the tabulations of votes. But more than candidates had a stake. Here are the losers of Election 2009:

DEMOCRATS - Local Democrats didn't make any major inroads this year. They didn't field a candidate for county treasurer (though it might have been interesting to see the GOP candidate, incumbent Jim Orman, run ads using the letter from current County Democratic Chair Katie Lacey supporting him four years ago). While they picked up one seat in the Legislature (Democrat Steve Barski), they lost the seat held by Legislator Daniel Schuster, which now turns Republican with the election of Timothy C. Lattimore. In the end the Legislature will have 11 Republicans and four Democrats come Jan. 1. In Sennett, with Republicans hotly divided, they didn't pick up the supervisor's seat. They also couldn't pick up a fourth town board seat, in a town where they have an overwhelming voter registration edge.

GOP #- The GOP didn't fare much better. First-termer Linda Murphy could not get re-elected in her race. In her district, in the northeast corner of the city, which has long been Republican (Democrat William Catto took it from the GOP eight years ago) it had been Republican since the mid-1980s. For the third time in a row, the GOP also didn't field an official second candidate for the Auburn City Council. The GOP's high hopes in Owasco were dashed again. They ran a coordinated campaign, leaving open the seat currently held by popular Town Clerk Robert A. Shaw, a Democrat. Instead, in each of the contested races, including a race where a Democratic incumbent has pending criminal charges against him #- they had only one win, for a town board seat, with former Auburn school principal Anthony Gucciardi.

WOMEN #- Women were not even on the ballot for key races for city council, county Legislature and many town supervisor races, women were not even on the ballot. Murphy was the only woman running in a competitive race, and she lost. Now the Legislature is down to two women, Cindy Aikman and Ann Petrus.

REFERENDUMS #- While the city's non controversial increase to the bonding limit for energy projects squeaked by with just 60 votes (1,741 to 1,681), it is not a good sign for government leaders who want to put other spending plans before local voters. One has to wonder if the vote earlier this month may foreshadow what the results, in a very controversial bonding plan, will be next week for the Auburn school district.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com